By All Necessary Means
by Pixel and Stephanie Forever
Summary: A young Witch goes to interview an old man about the truth behind what happened during the events of the Second Dark War. What she gets is the complete story of love, life, death, peace and the start of something worth fighting for... Read how a small group of half trained magic users managed to fight a delaying war before gaining the power to go to fight - a fight that cost dearly
1. A Lonely Man

**A Lonely Old Man**

The water poured off her firm and perky breasts – causing her nipples to harden like torpedoes from the iciness that took hold of her bosom. The woman looked up to see an elderly man with a bemused look on his wrinkled face. It was, however, one that everybody knew.

"Why is it" he asked as he flicked his wand and dried her off, "That people are always pushing the button that says in very large letters 'DO NOT PUSH'? I suspect it is a mystery that I shall never solve"

"But if we do not push it, then how are we supposed to know what caused it to be taken out of order?"

"Spoken like a Ravenclaw. You know, you remind me in a lot of ways of Luna Lovegood…" the man chuckled at a private and long held memory as he led the way into the library room.

"Before we begin, Sir, can I just say how much of an honour it is to speak to you tonight?" the young Witch looked the somewhat frail old man sitting across from her in an old and well used wing backed armchair.

"_An honour_" the Wizard shook his head sadly. "I would not put it like that, but perhaps to you…" and he went silent. Shah looked around at the mantelpiece over the fire which held small glass display cases containing wands – each one of them sat on a purple velvet cushion with a brass plaque with names reading '_Hermione_', '_Lavender_', '_Sally-Anne_', '_Gabrielle_' and '_Luna_'. They were but a few amongst all of the others that lined the library walls with cabinets, shelves and niches all filled with different wands on the same type of cushion and in the same type of case.

"Reminds me of a mausoleum" the Witch said.

"Well I imagine it is one of sorts. In this room can be found the wands of all those that died as a result of the war… As a result of my inability to save them in time. Everyday I sit in this room and remind myself what it truly was we fought, bled, lived and died for" replied the man. "I have not spoken about what happened for those months since the Battle of Hogwarts. When it was all over, we all swore not to talk about what happened until there was just one person left alive"

"Why is that?"

"Because in my nearly two hundred years of life, Miss Ira Shah, I have found most parts of the Magical Press to be somewhat… _lacking_ in truthfulness. The public, as well, could take the smallest piece of information and blow it up into something that was not true at all. Things happened, Miss, which would make some people question my sanity. I, and those that were with me, did things that were very murky to say the least – things we would not normally have done if it had not been wartime. Others would use it as more evidence to have my person locked away and used as some sort of weapon the next time some Dark force came around…" the old man sighed and sipped at his whiskey. "This is the first interview I have given to the press in nearly forty years"

"May I ask why?" Shah asked – her curiosity peaked somewhat.

"Because you asked and did not _demand_ a few moments of my time. Also, I was friends to both Parvati and Padma… Both of them were my friends, we stood together in battle and we bled together in battle. I know that the Patil family wouldn't do anything to disrespect me. Now, I suppose you would like to hear what I have to say about the war…" the man sighed slightly.

"It is why I came, Sir"

"Indeed?" the elderly wizard said dryly. "What I am about to tell you, Miss Shah, is to be published in full without any additions except where you feel points may be made a little more clear"

"I understand"

"Well then" the wizard put his empty glass on the table next to him and then leaned back into the oversized armchair he favoured so much, "It all started over a hundred and eighty years ago one summer. Nobody knew that day what was to come, was to happen and was to shape the future. I was at the Weasley family home to be at the wedding of Bill and Fleur. I'd met them both a few years before at the Tri-Wizard, and that was a right old load of crap too. Found out during the time that followed I could have got out of it because I didn't put my name the Goblet of Fire" the man snorted. "Goblet of Fire… Stupid bloody name for a cup with cold flames! Should have named it the Sippy Cup of Icicles" he shook his head. "Sorry, my dear Miss Shah. An old man is sometimes prone to go off on a tangent that takes a while to complete"

"From you, Sir" said Shah, "I don't think people would mind"

"Oh, you flatter a foolish old bugger" but the emerald eyes twinkled with amusement. "Well, let's start with the true story of the 2nd Dark War. The story that nobody has ever heard of before - _my_ story… The story of Lord Harry James Potter"

**A/N:**

**A short introductory chapter to the fic…**

**The OC of Ira Shah is named after my very good and EXTREMELY close friend who I have known all the way back since Primary School. Yes, believe it or not, I was once young…!**

**The following chapters will different to the others in that they will switch between the past and the "present" – it is something I have not tried before.**

**Reviews in the normal manner…**

**Pixel and Stephanie**


	2. Mood Swings

**Mood Swings**

"_It was a summer that none of us would ever forget. The day was actually a very nice one… The sun was shining, birds were singing, few clouds in the sky and the last preparations of a wedding could be heard. What nobody knew… What none of us _could_ know was that it would be the last time some of us would ever be gathered together like this. The first we knew about the Ministry having fallen to Voldemort was when we got a message from Kingsley Shaklebolt and then the whole word slipped into darkness. But it wasn't with the sound of crying and wailing – it was the sounds of death and destruction. After managing to make an escape from the Weasley home, myself and a few others managed to hole up at Grimmauld Place until we could work out what to do next. At the point I start the story, my dear, it was a week and a half after the attacks…_"

"Turn that off…" Harry said. Hermione looked at him before shutting off the wireless that was playing doom filled tunes interspaced with announcements from the Ministry – all under Voldemort's control. From the last messages that they had got before going into hiding, the Aurors had nearly all been told to report to their briefing room before Death Eaters swooped in and killed the entire lot of them. Only Shaklebolt, Tonks Moody managed to get out, but they'd not heard from them in several days.

"We need to come up with a plan" said Hermione.

"You are the bloody brainy one, Hermione… You do it"

"Whats got into you?" Hermione asked, looking up from the tea she was drinking.

"Whats got into me? Mione… I warned them for two years that Voldemort was ready and on his way to planning a major attack, but nobody listened to me. In one go Voldemort has taken out nearly all of the Auror force, killed the Unspeakables, gained control of the Ministry and left the Wizarding world crippled and out of control. Gangs roam the streets looking for Muggle Born or Half Bloods to capture or kill – even worse as we know. What the hell can we do but try to survive?"

"Surviving is all we can do" Hermione said soothingly.

"Alright… We survive! So, what do we do?" Harry asked her.

"First of all, we need to find out what is the truth and what is false from what we hear on the Wireless. Next, we need to establish who managed to get to a safe place and if we can team up with them somehow. After that, we need to see which side of the fence the Goblins are on"

"The winning side, normally" Susan Bones said. She'd been quiet up until that moment – content to sit at the window and look out at the falling rain. It was, she decided sadly, all too fitting.

"I know they normally do, but they might be willing to help us if they realise that Voldemort will, at some point, take on the Goblins and gain control of all their riches and power" Hermione replied. "At the very least we can get them to sit it out" and Harry nodded.

"We're going to need money, and lots of it" he mused. "We're also going to have to do things with as little magic as possible"

#

"_Why was that, My Lord?"_

"_Because Voldemort had gained control of the Ministry and was using it to track the wands of nearly everybody underaged. Low level spells such as household ones would go undetected in a magical house because of the ambient levels there. But anything more powerful than a levitation spell would cause the Snatchers to go out and eliminate the target. It was how we lost a good many people in the first few days before the word got out…"_

"_What did you do after that?"_

"_After Hermione got me out of the dark place I was in, we decided that we needed to make a strike against Voldemort and his forces. There were so few of us that we couldn't risk an outright attack, but nor could we simply sit back and watch as our entire world collapsed. It was not until a full month after the fall of the Ministry that we launched our first offensive"_

#

"So" Daphne said, eyeing the large board attached to one wall in the library, "What is the plan?" she asked.

"Not all of the Death Eaters can apperate" Hermione said, "And we know that too many Portkeys in one area causes magic to wobble and split apart. I propose this – destroy the Floo network"

"And how do you suggest we do that?" asked Dean. "Chuck and bomb into a connection and run like hell?"

"Sort of" Harry said. "The Ministry controls all Floo networks – except those that are only between houses in the same family such as between Potter Manor and Potter Villa. If we can get into the Floo control chamber and somehow disable or destroy the crystals there, we could limit the Death Eaters for a long time to come"

"But the chamber is in the Ministry. We can hardly come in through the front door and ask them for directions" Lavender said.

"No, and neither can we use Portkeys or the Floo ourselves" Hermione said in reply. "However, Susan thinks we might have a way in. Susan?" and the red haired girl stood and crossed to board and enlarged the picture it had. It was a floor plan of the Ministry showing all of the offices, cells, injury rooms, courts and everything you could think of.

"Before the surface entry and exit to the Ministry was by the phone box, a number of tunnels existed between the surface and the underground. They have not been used for over a hundred years, but most of them are still in existence. When my Aunt took me into the Ministry, I used to love looking at the maps and plans of the place – and that's how I remembered about the tunnels. One of them leads almost to the bottom of the Ministry where we need to be to launch our attack. It will take us about an hour to get down there using those tunnels, but we will be undetected"

"How can you be sure of this?" asked Daphne.

"When I mentioned it to Auntie, she said that she'd forgotten all about them. Now, if she had not remembered then it is safe to assume the Death Eaters and their supporters do not either"

"We'd never get back out the same way" said Astoria.

"No" Susan agreed, "But we're not going to do that"

"We're not?"

"No" Harry said. "Dean will be waiting on the surface in a concealed van. Once we have launched our attack, we'll get out by way of the phone box and then send it back down with it set to explode. By the time it does, we've all got in the van and got the hell out of there. Of course, it means that we'd have to leave here because one sighting of us in London and we'd be done for. We're risking a lot staying here as it is, so part of the time between now and then will be to pick out a new hiding spot and moving our stuff to it. Once we're going on the mission, we'll rig this place to blow up and give away the location. If they are as dumb as they seem to be, they'll swoop in and try to take us alive for some pony and trap show. They won't even know what has hit them"

"What about the Muggles?" asked Dean.

"We'll try to get them out if possible, but we have to win this war by all necessary means" Harry said. "If that means killing some Muggles to take out the Death Eaters, then that is a price I am willing to pay"

What are we going to do after that?" asked Seamus.

"We'll regroup and then see what is the result of our attack. After that, we'll keep striking at targets to show Voldemort that we're still here and we're still fighting. The Order is next to useless with most of the senior members either dead or captured, so it is up to us to form a resistance" Hannah said.

"Besides" Harry added to the Hufflepuff's statement, "I want him to be afraid of us and I want him to be afraid of the public"

"Can we afford that?" Daphne questioned.

"No, but it has to be done. Voldemort's power is not through the Death Eaters but through fear, illusion and mastery of the mind. A muggle once said that hope is like a seed – plant it and it will soon grow to be great. If we can give the Wizarding public something to think about, even for a short time, it will prove that he can be hurt, can be struck and can be taken down. It will be a long time in coming and I can't say if we will all get through it - but I promise you this…" Harry took out his wand and held it out in front of him with the tip glowing. "We will never give up" and he watched as, one by one, the others also took out their wands and did the same as him.

"We're with you, Harry" said Lavender. The normally air-headed Gryffindor spoke with a fierceness they'd rarely heard before.

"Till the end" agreed Hannah. Harry watched as the group all looked around at each other and nodded in determination to do what it was that was needed. He remained silent for a moment, trying to think of something to say before it hit him. Tapping each person's wand in turn, he formed a circle of friendship and loyalty.

"My name" he said, "Is Harry James Potter, and I do solemnly swear that I will continue to fight until either we win or I am found dead with my face to the enemy"

**A/N:**

**And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, is how we end a chapter with a kick-ass finale!**

**For the record, Team Harry is made up of Harry, Hermione, Lavender, Hannah, Susan, Daphne and Astoria Greengrass, Dean, Seamus, Padma and Parvati (although neither was in this chapter). In case you don't realise, that's eleven school children going up against armed, heavily dangerous adults who are all graduates of magical schools and whom all have advanced training in Dark Arts. And, to keep you interested in the story and somewhat curious, one of the above characters does not make it to the end of Chapter 3!**

**Special mention to the awesomely named Valkyn Highwind – that deserves a mention somewhere in the next chapter I think.**

**Reviews in the normal manner…**

**Pixel and Stephanie**


	3. The Courageous Sacrifice of Daphne

**The Courageous Sacrifice of Daphne Greengrass**

"When do we do this?" asked Hannah.

"In a few hours" Harry replied. "You've run the figures with Susan, Padma and Luna – how does it look?"

"The best we can hope for, even if we catch them unawares, is four or five of us dead" Hannah replied.

"Too much"

"Harry, we've run the numbers and done all possible plans of action. There is, I am sorry to say, only the fact we will go down with dignity and fighting until the end"

"We could hold it off until Dean is able to get us those guns" Hermione said.

"Yeah, but who knows what we might let happen otherwise" Harry shrugged. "If Dean can't get them before we go, then we simply have to do the mission without them – although the thought of mowing them down with a Gimpy has merit" he added with a chuckle. "What is our latest intelligence?" and Hannah looked up at Harry.

"We're looking at about three hundred people in the Ministry when we strike. A large portion of those will be low level workers and cleaning staff"

"Assuming that they haven't changed the way things are, the rest of that should be made up of the Duty Guard in the Auror Room. Of course, I am not sure what the numbers are after they killed most of them, but the Snatchers might be based there too"

"Can we stop them from coming up to you?" asked Dean.

"Yes, but anything we do will stop us from using the same methods to get out" Susan said. "All Ministry functions such as the lifts and the phone box entry are controlled in the same warding chamber. If we blow that up, then we're not getting out"

"So we need to get in, disable everything, get out and have it blow up after us…?" Harry rubbed his chin before a thought came to him.

"Harry?" Hermione questioned him.

"I was just thinking that there might be a way" he replied. "Any magical explosive stuff would be picked up and people sent to stop it"

"Right"

"Right – so we don't do that. What if we get inside the chamber, disable nearly everything there, place some muggle explosives in the joint and getting the hell out of there before setting them off? It gives us a better opportunity to get out of there alive…"

"Can we even do that?" asked Hannah.

"Well if it is not magically powered, it might not be detected by the scanning wards" Susan said. "But I never asked my Aunt how the hell I could blow the place up"

"Why not use a chemical fuse and trigger? I think the muggles blew a ship up that way"

"Why would they do that?" asked Daphne. "That sounds stupid"

"It was during the Second World War" Harry said. "The Royal Navy rammed a ship into the gates of a dock to stop the Germans using it, blew the ship up and then either got away or surrendered" and Hermione frowned at the memory of something she'd read.

"That's possible" she decided. "We'll have to put the raid off a few days for me to get everything together, but if you can get me inside I can bring the place down"

#

"_Why did you plan to take down the Ministry?"_

"_The Ministry had turned into as dark a place as any other… There was no law, no justice and no honour to be found there. We knew that if we could strike even a small blow there then it would give others something that I did not have at the beginning"_

"_What was that, Lord Potter?"_

"_Hope… Hope that Voldemort could be hurt, could be attacked, that there was people willing to stand up to him. Most people had given up by this stage and had either gone into hiding or left the country disguised as muggles"_

"_Did you have any problems with killing people?"_

"_None of us did – why would we? We were only doing to them what they would do to us, and one dead Death Eater then was one less we'd have to fight later in some grand final battle. Hermione made up the detonators and explosives whilst the rest of us packed and got ready to move out. A week after we first wanted to do the attack, everything was ready for us. We'd spent most of the time, apart from what I already said, training in rapid spell work and doing combat scenerios. We wanted to be ready for anything. Then… Then we attacked the Ministry"_

"_Do you finish the mission?" and to the surprise of the Witch, Harry displayed a mixture of emotions as he sighed and dropped his head and nodded before looking at her with eyes that held a haunted look._

"_Yes… At great cost, yes"_

"_How?"_

"_By use of the thing that my own mother gave for me…"_

#

The group watched as the van slowly entered the traffic at Hammersmith before heading towards Scotland Place. Harry glanced at the others who all stood wearing form fitting clothing with wands in holsters – armed and ready to go.

"Last chance" he said, but nobody was backing out.

"We need to get off the street and onto the track" said Hermione. The group hurried to the London Underground station for the Hammersmith and City Line where the doors were locked due to the station being closed overnight. A quick unlocking spell and the gated entrance was opened and they slipped inside and hurried to lock the thing behind them. Turning themselves invisible, a slight bit of a risk, they hurried down to the platforms and walked to the end before jumping onto the tracks and hurrying a little bit down the wall for the buildings above them.

"To the left and about ten feet in front of us" Padma's voice called out quietly. Everybody looked and saw a slight shimmer indicating a concealed entry point.

"That's it" said Susan. "Once we get inside, we should be covered by the wards and enchantments of the Ministry. Auntie always said that the wards just got updated remotely instead of checking out every single bit" and they looked around out of habit before slipping in one by one and cancelling their invisibility charms.

"How long do we have left?" asked Hannah.

"Fifty minutes" Harry replied, checking his watch. "Susan, are you that this tunnel leads all the way to the Ministry direct?" and the Hufflepuff nodded.

"Yeah… We can save time by using these" and she pulled out broomsticks which she unshrunk.

"Why didn't I think of that?" asked Hermione to herself.

"Mainly because you hate them" Lavender replied.

"Come on" said Daphne, "Lets get going" and they all mounted their brooms and got into a hover.

"Susan and me will go at the front" Harry decided. "Susan knows the way and I will use a light beam from my wand as a searchlight in case of a cave in" and the group set off at a reasonable pace.

"Have I ever told anybody I am really afraid of the dark?" mentioned Lavender.

"And yet you came down here" Harry said.

"You said I am brave, so I am brave and face my fears" and Harry felt a little warm in his stomach and smiled as he lit the way ahead by Susan's side.

#

"This is somewhat insane" muttered Seamus.

"Why?" asked Astoria. She was in the van along with Seamus and Dean.

"An Irishman sat in a van with armed weapons next to Scotland Yard…? I hope the plod doesn't turn up and search us"

"Why is it so bad though?"

"Muggles of my kind… We have a bit of a bad reputation. Nothing as bad as Voldemort and his lot, of course, but they've done some stupid and silly stuff – a really long story"

"And we have the time" said Dean. Reaching for his wand, he tapped a series of runes implanted into the non descript white Ford Transit which hummed slightly and then wavered into invisibility.

"Of course" Seamus chuckled, "That also helps!"

"How long do we have to wait until they go in?" asked Astoria.

"Assuming they encountered nothing wrong in the tunnel, they should be there very soon" Dean said and his old DA badge started to glow softly and a soft chime was heard.

"_Team One to Team Two – We've arrived at the Church and about to go in for penance. Standby for extraction in one five minutes – out_" Harry's voice sent out the simple message.

"Fuck me" Dean cursed, "They're going for it…" and the three in the van looked at each other before drawing their wands and checking their cobbled together armour.

#

"We're just a few feet away from the stairs" Susan said, consulting a copy of the plans to the Ministry. The group crept along unlit passageways before ending up in front of a door that seemed placed there at random. "This is it" she announced. The others looked for trouble with their wands out and pointing all over as Susan and Padma worked on undoing the charms that protected the door. It took them a few minutes of muttering quietly and swirling colours before the door swung open and revealed a set of stone steps – torches set into brackets along the spiral.

"We're in" said Harry. "Lavender, Daphne, Padma, Parvati, Susan, Hannah – you stay here and cover our escape. I want two here and three at the lifts in case they've changed their patrol routes and times. Me and Hermione are going down to disable the crystals and set the charges alone. Now, if we are any longer than ten minutes down there, you get back out the same way we came in and request a pick up from Team Two. Get out of the country and make for the French Ministry – Fleur's father should give you protection"

"I think that I speak for everyone here when I say 'Bollocks to that', Harry" said Lavender.

"I mean it. It means that either we've been captured down there or otherwise are not getting out alive. If that's the case, we'll set the charges and detonate them on a short timer" Harry said.

"We're not leaving without you" said Padma. "Like that muggle film we went to see, 'All For One and One For All'. You do what you have to do and we'll give you the time you need"

"Thanks" Harry said with a smile, and he and Hermione headed through the door and down with lit up wands as the others took up defensive postures and positions.

"So" Daphne said as the sound of footsteps faded away, "Did anybody bring some cards?"

#

"I wish we could light the torches" Harry grumbled.

"You know what Susan said – they are linked to a magic detector. It sets off an alarm and we'd be found quicker than how we'd like to be"

"Mmm… Remind me how long you set the fuses for?" he asked.

"I could only set them for five minutes – most I could do on the short timespan we had" came the reply. "Once they are cracked, the acid will drip down and burn through the strip and set off the detonator. Once we've done it, we've got to run up the stairs and get to the lift before they turn this bottom level into the face of the sun"

"At least we know the system will be disabled before we destroy them" said Harry. "Although it will limit our travel to muggle means or apparition, Voldemort and his forces will be crippled in their movement for a while which will give us the advantage for a while"

"Yeah… Here we are" Hermione said. Harry looked to the left to see a small tower of crystals humming and glowing with power. He could feel magic being excited on the air and the hairs on the back of his neck stood up on end. The pair of them stood before they looked at each and nodded firmly. "Let's do this" and Hermione took the bag she had been carrying and placed it on the floor. Reaching in, she pulled out the explosives as Harry handed her the detonators which he had carried in his pockets. It had been decided, for safety reasons, that the bomb would not be armed until the very last possible moment.

"Mione?"

"Yeah?"

"What happens if we take the crystals?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well what if we take the ones for controlling the magical methods of transporting?" Harry asked. "You never know if we might need them, and at least we'd be the only ones to be able to use them" and Hermione thought it over.

"The missing ones would be picked up and we'd be discovered before we left" she said.

"Yeah, but what if we warded this place first? By the time anyone notices what we've done, the bomb will have long since detonated and incinerated everything in this room and the level above us" and Harry's suggestion made sense to Hermione.

"You do it whilst I finishing wiring up this lot" and Harry nodded and made complicated patterns to comprise the heavy wards to disguise the fact they had stolen the crystals. Once he had finished, he looked back down to see Hermione putting the last of the fuses into place. Taking out a heavy rock from her pocket, she then smashed it several times on the fuses – shattering the glass tubes and causing the contents to leak.

"Team One and Team Two. It is hot in Suez and the dice are on the table. Out" Harry spoke into the badge before following Hermione at the run up the stairs to end up in the corridor. "I believe this is no longer a safe place to be standing in" he said to them. They all laughed as they hurried to the lifts – passing a somewhat surprised Luna Lovegood. It was not for another few seconds that Harry realised who he had passed by and, as he turned round in the lift, raised his wand and cast _Accio_ on the girl.

"Harry?"

"Hi, Luna. Now is not the best time to explain things, but it is good see you"

"And you. I seem to have missed out on something good" she said in a somewhat non dreamlike voice.

"Oh, I think you'll get the remaining part just fine" Harry chuckled. "Two, send lift down. OutThe lift stopped and the doors opened to reveal only a few witches and wizards walking around at that early hour of the morning – but the stunned attitude changed as the teens ran for the place where the phonebox would end up. Wands came up as an alarm was sounded, and they were forced to seek cover where possible and return spell with spell.

"Four minutes" Hermione said.

"What happens in four minutes?" asked Luna.

"We make a bigger bang then the Weasley Twins ever did" Lavender said, shooting at a pair of Death Eaters with a dark red beam. The phone box started coming down from the surface, and Harry watched as the glass smashed outwards from it and spellfire rained down with some striking effect.

"Three minutes"

"Okay people, we're out of here" Harry said. Most of them had turn to run for the phone box when there was a cry of pain behind him and he turned to see Daphne with a smoking hole in her stomach – entrails spilling out onto her robes. "Man down!" he yelled and dragged Daphne behind a pillar for protection. "We'll get you sorted in a minute, Daph" he said, casting spell after spell.

"Potter… Harry" Daphen spat out blood from her mouth. "We both know I am not going to make it out of here"

"Don't talk like that" Harry said. "I am not going to leave you behind" but the Slytherin smiled weakly as pain hit her again and blood dripped from her mouth freely.

"Two minutes!" Hermione shouted over the noise of battle.

"We both know I don't have long left to live, Harry" she pointed her wand at a fallen Death Eater and summoned their wand to her. Nodding in acceptance, she turned her own wand over to Harry who took it gently from her and put it inside his pocket. "I'll give you and the others covering fire until you can get out of here – make sure that wand gets to Astoria. Now you promise me that, Potter"

"I swear it" Harry said. "I wish we could have known each other longer and better"

"So do I" the blonde replied. "But even the few shorts weeks we've spent together has meant more then can ever be spoken about. You know, you're not too bad for a Gryffindor"

"And you are one of the bravest Slytherins I have ever known" Harry said, and he put out his hand. "Goodbye and Good Luck, Daphne Greengrass"

"Goodbye and Good Luck, Harry Potter" she replied as she shook it with as much strength as she had remaining. "Now, do me a favour get the fuck out of here and keep Tori safe…"

"It was worth it knowing you just to hear you swear" Harry laughed. Daphne looked at him, rolled on to her gaping and holed stomach and fired spell after spell in any direction and at any target she saw. Harry did not bother to shoot anything as he dodged deadly spell after deadly spell and made a running leap into the phone box.

"Emergency" Susan said. "Emergency evacuation of the Ministry" and the box did not bother as it suddenly rocketed upwards at a high rate of speed leaving the battle behind them. When they got to the surface, Astoria flung open the doors to the transit van as the group all piled in. Seamus, the one to get in the driving seat, flicked the ignition on and gunned the engine before speeding away.

#

Daphne heard the rush of air as the group managed to get up before the bomb detonated. Nodding in acceptance of her fate, and overjoyed her sister would be safe, she pushed her intestines back inside her and struggled to a standing position. The spells from the Death Eaters stopped as they saw the badly wounded girl rise from her protection.

"Giving up? We'll give you a quick death" sneered one.

"Like hell" the girl said. "My name is Daphne Greengrass of the Greengrass Family, of Slytherin House and of Harry's Army. I am not going to die on the ground like some common wretch. I am a Pureblood and I will face my death on my feet and facing my enemy"

"Nice words from someone about to die"

"Perhaps, but I am going out on my terms and fighting until the end" and raising her wand, she advanced on the Death Eaters – firing more spells then she could have counted as the bomb, hidden in the depths of the complex detonated.

#

The group in the van all felt the wave of magical energy wash through them and Seamus pulled the van over in a quiet part of a side street for them to take stock of the situation. Most of them had nothing more than minor to mild cuts, bruises and other such small injuries.

"Harry?" Astoria's voice cut through the talking of the others. "Harry? Where is Daph?" and Harry hesitated before reaching into his pocket and pulling out Daphne's wand.

"I'm so sorry" he said, handing it over to her. "I tried to save her, but there was nothing I could have done in time"

"Noooooo" Astoria gasped in shock.

"She got shot in the back, but she saved my life and most likely the lives of everyone else. Her guts were hanging out of her stomach, she was nearly already gone from the blood loss… Tori, even if we had got her out, we'd not have had time to do much then make her last few moments comfortable. It was her request that you get her wand and she used a Death Eater one to lay down covering fire for the rest of us to get inside the phone box before we escaped. The last any of us saw of her, she was holding her own despite her terminal injuries"

"Why Daphne and not her?" Astoria asked, pointing a finger at Luna.

"We didn't even know she was there until we went past her. Whatever happened was not Luna's fault – we knew somebody would die in the attack when we planned this whole thing"

"YOU KILLED HER!" Astoria's wand came up, but Hermione hit her with a stunning spell which made her crumple to the floor.

"And one more innocent life gone" Harry said sadly. "Seamus, get us on the move"

"Where?"

"As far as we can get" came the reply. "Take us to the Forest of Dean – Dobby should be ready for our arrival"

#

"_What happened next, Lord Potter?"_

"_We got to our safe place and recovered from our first battle. Turned out that Luna had been trying to find a way out of the Ministry which explained why she was not at the Wedding. We heard that Voldemort had gone into a fearful rage upon hearing the news of our attack, and that attacks had slowed somewhat since they could not Floo or Portkey to a location"_

"_Then what?"_

"_Then we got ourselves collected once more and started plotting our next target after spending a while relaxing. We would make Voldemort fear us and what we could do"_

"_Did it work?"_

"_Yes. The war went on for many months, as you know, but what we did was worth it and we made sure that Daphne's sacrifice was not in vein"_

"_What did you attack next, My Lord?"_

"Ah, well between you and me… That was one of my more brilliant ideas. We knew that to attack Voldemort was not an option at that point, so we attacked a known Death Eater establishment and took prisoners. But that, my dear, is a story for a little later"

**A/N:**

**Well I certainly hope that you all enjoyed the chapter, even if the chapter title was a bit of a giveaway!**

**As promised, we've lost a member of Team Harry but gained one – so a no score draw in terms of numbers. Astoria is going to hate Luna for a couple of chapters, so expect a little bit of cursing to come from her in the next two or three chapters. Also, that girl has just her only sibling so she is going to be volatile for a long time.**

**I also bet you wondered about Dobby's situation – well he threw in his lot with the Great Harry Potter Sir when the war started and has been hard at work doing something which will be seen in the next chapter. I have a bit of a soft spot for that elf, and normally try to keep him alive.**

**My homepage has been updated to indicate which fics are being worked on. Well, just remains for me to say that a vote is open for everyone to take part in. I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as I have writing it.**

**With respect to london4transport - a good website with all the info you'd need about the London Underground. Quite a few colourful people there...**

**Reviews in the normal manner…**

**Pixel and Stephanie**


	4. Plans, Plans, Plans And Hannah Abbott

**Plans, Plans, Plans and Hannah Abbott**

Harry walked around the area and glanced around as he sipped from the mug of tea he had held in his hands. It had been a week since the attack on the Ministry, and what little news they were able to glean from the Voldemort controlled WWN seemed to indicate the start of a massive reprisal. It pained him and the others about not being able to go in and help those in trouble, but there was a very good reason why he had to stay hidden away - safe and sound whilst others suffered and died.

#

_**Three Days Previously**_

"Hermione, we can't just sit here and listen to all these deaths" Harry said. "We have the weapons, some training to go with them and I think we could at least do some damage before we'd be forced to retreat"

"I know that..." Hermione put down the potions book she was reading to look up at her oldest and most dearest friend.

"Look at it this way" Susan cut in from the corner of the tent, "You are the most important person in the entire country"

"Oh, because I survived Voldemort trying to kill me?"

"No" Hermione and Susan shook their heads together.

"We didn't want to tell you this until much later, but you are not just the most important person in the country, but you are this country" Hermione told him.

"Want to run that past me again?"

"It basically goes like this... Fudge, although stupid, was Minister for Magic, right?"

"Yeah"

"And he died in the fighting and nobody took over"

"I thought that Voldemort had put that Thickneese git in as Minister"

"Yes, but he shouldn't be there" Hermione said. "Think of it this way - what happens if the General of an army dies?"

"His second in command takes over" harry replied.

"Exactly... What has happened here is the same sort of thing. When Fudge left office, so to speak, he did so without nominating anybody to replace him. Therefore, the magic of the office would go to the next person down the chain of command"

"So...?"

"Fudge had no Deputy Minister and Umbridge had deserted her post. Knowing this, magic then started going through what was privately known as The Chain" said Susan.

"Still not getting what you mean"

"If there is no Deputy Minister or Under Secretary to take over after the Minister leaves office for whatever reason, the next person down in the list gets the position. It keeps going down the list and will not stop until it finds somebody alive. If none of the department heads in The Chain are alive or able to take office, it will then go to the Wizengamot and choose from there. Given the fact that Dumbledore had died so close to the attack, nobody had bothered to even pick an Acting Chief Warlock..."

"Oh dear..." Harry groaned as it started to make sense.

"Should there not be such a position, it will then go to the families in order of seniority. Not only is the Potter Family the most important one under such circumstances, you were also the only member to not get killed" Susan finished for Hermione.

"You mean..."

"Sorry" the red head shrugged, "But ever since the attack, you have been invested with the office of Minister of Magic. For all intense and purposes, you are Magical Britain"

"Is there any way, even remotely, that my life could get any worse?" Harry groaned.

"Well..." the girls looked hesitant.

"Just spit it out" he growled.

"Luna used the last of the toilet paper"

"Alright, Sue... You can be the head of the DMLE" harry said and Susan stood, faced him and assumed the 'at ease' position.

"Yes, Minister... What are your orders, Sir?"

"Engage the enemy wherever they may be, kill Death eaters and keep on fighting until we win or we're killed in action"

"Aye, Aye, Sir" Susan finished with a cheeky grin"

#

_**Present Time**_

"You seen Astoria anywhere?" asked Harry.

"She's outside by the fire with Dean" Hermione replied.

"She's been spending a lot of time with him lately"

"Yeah... Should I have words with her?" she asked him

"No" came the reply. "I know what she has been doing with Dean and, although she is far too young to be doing that sort of thing normally, if it is her way of coping with losing her sister then we'd better be leaving her alone"

"Perhaps so…" Hermione admitted, "We've all had to grow up faster than we should really have done. Is there something you wanted?" she asked him.

"Yeah – meeting in half an hour"

#

"We need supplies for everything that we use, so we're going to have to make a raid on Diagon Alley" Harry said, looking around the table. "Even if we ration what we have now, we're still going to run out of potions equipment and other magical supplies by the end of a fortnight. Our food situation is not that bad, seeing as how we can go to Muggle shops, but we'll take what foodstuffs we can lay our hands on. If you've got any objections, then I'd like to hear them…"

"It's not that I don't disagree" started Seamus, "But with what we did at the Ministry… The place is going to be crawling with Death Eaters, Snatch Squads plus Aurors and Hit Wizards and Witches"

"I agree" said Hannah. "We've already lost Daphne and, despite making that up with Luna, can we really afford to lose another person?" she asked.

"No, but that's why Hermione has come up with a plan with help from Luna" Harry gestured and Hermione unrolled a large map that Dean had drawn of the entire street.

"Thanks to our attack on the Ministry, the Aurors cannot magically transport anywhere in or out from London. Now, while that means we've got only a limited amount of people we might be facing, we cannot discount the very real possibility of some of Voldemort's gang of sick thugs in disguise" Hermione said. "Getting around the place will not be too hard to achieve, but it is getting _in_ that will prove to be the tricky part"

"Anybody going into the Alley has to have a pendant that glows at the touch of a Death Eater's wand, but you can only get those from the Leaky Cauldron and there is at least one checkpoint there" Padma said.

"And it's not as if we can Portkey or Floo in" smirked her twin.

"Can we fly in on broomsticks?" asked Hannah.

"Local area charms prevent that" Hermione shook her head, "And that goes double for simply parachuting in – even if it would confuse the enemy"

"Why don't we go to the bank?" asked Luna dreamily.

"Uh… Because we can't get into it?" Dean rolled his eyes.

"While I was trapped in the Ministry I heard a lot of their plans and defences. One day, I heard a discussion about letting the public go shopping – their defences are too strong for us to break in, but that is also their weakness"

"How?"

"They aim to keep people out" realisation dawned for Harry.

"Exactly" Luna nodded. "All mail is intercepted and read – the same goes for parcels. The only stuff that isn't, is bearing the seal of Gringotts because, as mad as he is, even Voldemort would not want to take on the Goblins without superior numbers and wands. All we have to do is put ourselves in a parcel, get it sent to Gringotts and then simply walk out of the building"

"Back up plan?"

"Same as the first plan – win at any cost" Harry said. "One thing, though… We're going to take prisoners. I know that it might not sit well with some of you, but we need to know what sort of plans Voldemort has"

"If you think that we need to take prisoners, Harry, then I'm right with you" Seamus shrugged. "We all knew what this would mean and involve… We need to get the job done" and the others all agreed.

"I was wondering" Lavender spoke up from the edge of the room, "If we could get hold of some invisibility cloaks to move around better. I am sure that the Death Eaters will be watching the amount of people going in and out of the bank"

"True, but we only have the one cloak for use" Hermione reminded her.

"Perhaps, but couldn't we turn some of them invisible for a short time?" enquired Harry. "Can't we put a charm or something on them?" and Hermione and Padma nodded together.

"It is certainly possible" said Padma, "But the charms will not last for that long"

"How long is 'not long'?"

"Half an hour – if that" came the reply.

"Our bigger problem is knowing how many visitors we'll be bringing back" sighed Hannah. "I'd say bring back three of them and keep them in separate parts of the tent"

"Maybe we don't have to do that" argued Susan. "There is a cave system nearby… We could keep them there under charms and stuff, bring them out one by one and then…" she shuddered before finishing "dispose of them" and they all agreed to that. After talking some more about the plan they split up to do various things. Harry remained behind and sat in an armchair by the fireplace and stared deep into its heart whilst he questioned his own soul. Whilst the others had all agreed to help him in any way possible when they signed on with him, after losing Daphne he could help but wonder if he would lose another of his friends in the upcoming battle. He knew that, if he did so, they'd lay down their lives to protect him and his path to the final showdown with Voldemort.

'_But_' he thought to himself, '_Do I have the right_?"

# # # # #

Later that same evening, Hannah rose from her bed and went out into the main area of the tent. She didn't bother to put on a robe to cover herself as they had all learned in the first few days of being on the run and hiding that they had more important things to think about then covering themselves. In fact, Hannah was wearing only a pair of lacy bra and knickers as she went into the kitchen and made herself a cup of tea. Only she and Harry would drink the green tea with lemon, so it was alright for her to have more than just two cups a day like the others did. As she sat around the gloomy looking kitchen, the lights having dimmed to a reasonable level, she noticed the door to the library was ajar and somebody was inside. Taking a guess as to whom that person might be, she picked up her cup and crossed over and went inside.

"I thought I'd find you here" she said softly.

"Huh?" Harry was startled and had his hand on his wand before realising it was the kind hearted Hufflepuff. "Sorry, Hans… Something that matter?"

"I was going to ask you the same question" she smiled as she sat on the stool in front of him. Catching Harry's eyes wondering her undressed state, a slight redness tinged her cheeks as a warm feeling spread through her. "You seem a little pre-occupied"

"Sorry" he quickly looked back at her face.

"Well at least I know you find me attractive" Hannah giggled. "But what I meant was why are you up so late? It is not your turn to keep a watch on the place, is it?"

"No… I'm just thinking about the raid we've planned"

"What about it?"

"We could be the only people still fighting to be free" Harry replied, "And it is not as if we're going to find any more people to join us soon" he added.

"Why do I suspect that you have been keeping something from us?" Hannah asked him, sipping her tea.

"The only person that knows about this is me and, I suppose, now you as well" Harry sighed before shaking his head. "We are not just the last group still fighting to be free – we're the _only_ group still fighting" and the cup paused on the way up for another sip.

"I thought there was another group still fighting somewhere"

"Captured two weeks ago outside York" Harry said. "Voldemort interrogated them all, killed the males in the group and then gave the women away – at an auction"

"Anybody we know?" the cup resumed its journey.

"Su-Li, Liza Cherks, Fay Dunbar, Natalie Fairbourne, Rionach O'Neal and Megan Jones"

"Oh, not Megs…" Hannah closed her eyes and groaned. "I noticed that most of those names are Gryffindors" and Harry nodded.

"He's wiping us out" he said. "And as for those girls, Su-Li died from suicide by Death Eater, Liza was killed to make an example to the other prisoners and Natalie is being held at Riddle Manor"

"What about Fay, Rionach and Megs?" asked Hannah.

"From what I have been able to find out, they are being used by the Death Eaters as… as _playthings_" Harry shuddered. "I know where they are being held and that, Hans, is the hardest part"

"Because we can't go and get them out?" Hannah had the last of her tea.

"No" Harry shook his head sadly. "It's more a question of _should_ I do it"

"Why won't you?"

"Because if I get them out of there, I will be letting three others suffer the same fate" and Hannah nodded in understanding.

"Catch 22"

"Yep" Harry watched the embers in the fire and felt a weight in his side as the barely clothed blonde Hufflepuff snuggled up to him.

"What are you going to do about it then?" she asked.

"Well I plan to start on your breasts and then work my way down" Harry gave off a half smile.

"You know that any time you want me, all you have to do is ask"

"I know, Hannah, sweetie, but I do not want to disrespect you like that" although Hannah could see that Harry was sorely tempted to take her there and then! As it was, he traced a finger in senseless patterns on the tops of her legs near to her most intimate part before giving a sigh and coming to a decision. "Fuck it… I do not know them that well, but I am a Gryffindor and Gryffindors rush in where Angels fear to tread"

"And I wouldn't be a Hufflepuff without standing by my friend" Hannah said, kissing Harry gently on the forehead"

"Too many people trying to get in will cause the balloon to go up, so we'll take only a small group" Harry said. "You, me, Susan and Lavender"

"Why her?" Hannah asked.

"That is her own story to tell" Harry said as he shrugged his shoulders, "But she is most likely best suited to helping them get over the shock of seeing a Wizard and Witches not wanting to rape them – trying to save their lives"

"Half an hour be alright?"

"Yeah"

"What made you change your mind?" Hannah asked as she adjusted her knickers. They had become rather damp in the front part, but if that was the price she had to pay to get her friend relaxed and in a fit state of mind, then it was a price she was willing to pay. Her only regret was that Harry was too honourable to act on any feelings he may or may not have for her. On the few occasions the girls had all got together, Hermione had revealed that Harry was so emotionally scarred by the Dursleys and his childhood, such as it was, during his years at Hogwarts that he didn't know what love or attraction was. To give him the hint that she was fine with him gazing at her nearly naked form, she adjusted her underwear so the damp patch was on view and that Harry could see her nipples poking out through her bra.

"What they are doing to the girls is wrong – nobody has the right to do that" Harry said as he picked up his wand and followed Hannah out of the library. The blonde nodded before putting her used cup in the sink and heading towards the room she shared with Susan, Lavender and Luna. She was just about to go through the door when he called out to her.

"Yes, Harry?" she asked.

"When this is over and we get back, do you think… I mean to say… Can we have a private talk – just me and you?"

"I think I could manage that" Hannah said with a warm and loving smile before she turned and slipped inside. Harry watched the black silky rear vanish before he shook his head to clear his thoughts, drank a couple of glasses of pumpkin juice before returning to his room and starting to don dragon hide armour, strapping on his second wand in its holster and putting on his heavy combat boots. As he did all that, his mind was not on the daring hit and run attack he would be doing, but more on, for some reason, visions of a blonde Hufflepuff that looked remarkably like Hannah.


	5. The Good That Men Do

**The Good That Men Do**

"_The way into one of Voldemort's most well defended strongholds was risky indeed_" Harry leant into his chair and closed his eyes in thought. "_Not only did we have to get in, but we also had to locate at least three prisoners with unknown physical and mental injuries and then get the hell back out again_"

"_Did you do it_?" asked the reporter.

"_Oh yes_" Harry opened his eyes again and nodded. "_We had complications galore, but my inside contact gave me the correct information, eliminated the relieving set of guards and would later help me to send a message to everybody listening_"

"_Did you meet You-Know-Who_?"

"_He's been dead for well over a hundred years, and still people are afraid to speak his name_!" Harry muttered unkindly. "_Yes, for the first time since the take over the Ministry of Magic, Voldemort himself was engaged in combat. I didn't know for sure he was there, but it was a fair guess… I engaged him in battle and, in doing so, lost the life of somebody who was one of the most bravest people I have ever stood alongside. We might never have seen eye to eye on a lot of things, but there is no denying that my informant sacrificed himself for the greater good_" and Harry chuckled before coughing into his hand.

"_Are you alright, Mr Potter_?" asked Shah.

"_Old war wound_" Harry replied, "_It hurts like the devil at times, but I'll be alright after I take a potion. I was just thinking that that particular phrase was one of Dumbledore's favourites. The man that sacrificed his life for me was, when it came down to it, one of the most bravest Slytherins I know – the same as Daphne Greengrass_"

# # # # #

Harry looked around the area with Lavender behind, Susan to his left and Hannah to his right – all four of them gazing into darkness of the night at the place where Voldemort was staying. He burned at his insides that he was so close to his enemy and yet could do anything but to save the girls he had come for.

"There" Susan pointed towards the rocky outcrop that shielded an old drainage pipe that appeared to be large enough for them to move through if they did so at a stoop.

"Great" Harry replied. "If my information is correct, and I have no reason to doubt this source, that should lead us close to where the girls are being kept. We have to get towards the dungeons before it is two"

"Why then?"

"The guard is changed then, and there is about a good five or ten minute window before the new ones come in. When the previous guard has left, we get out the drainage tunnel, find the girls and Portkey straight out of here" Harry outlined his plan to the girls.

"Why didn't we Portkey right in?" asked Lavender.

"A good question" remarked Susan.

"The wards" Hannah replied with realisation. "The wards here are designed to stop anybody from getting inside that does not have a special keyed in token. The Death Eaters are stupid enough to use those that do not prevent travel outwards, so they will not know that anybody was here until it is too late"

"If it gets to within five minutes of the limit, we'll abandon the mission and get the hell out of here" Harry said. "We can always try again another day"

"If there is another day" said Lavender. "If what you said is true, Harry, then most of those girls will be looking for their get out card"

"Get out card?" frowned Susan.

"A way to kill themselves"

"You seem to know a lot about this" said Hannah.

"Yeah" Lavender smiled a bitter smile, "Yeah, I should do"

"Why?"

"It happened to me"

# # # # #

The quartet slipped into the tunnel and crept quietly along it as they made their way deep into enemy territory. They all knew that this was the first time that anybody had made a strike against Voldemort with any chance to live afterwards, and this would infuriate him a great deal. They all knew that it was just going to be three or four girls at the most, but the simple act of rebellion might just give others a glimpse of hope – those that didn't welcome the takeover by Voldemort, that was.

"Shusssh" Hannah held up a hand and the group stopped moving up the pipe and crouched low.

"What is it?" Harry whispered.

"There is a charm up ahead – about ten feet in front of me"

"Let me see" Susan squeezed past Harry and Hannah and cast low level spells – revealing that there was in fact a shield charm of sorts blocking their path. "Its easy to open" she said after a few minutes, "But if you want to keep the Death Eaters from finding out, I am going to have to keep casting confusion charms on it – but I am going to need somebody to cover me if anything goes wrong"

"I'll stay with you" Hannah said. "If the worst comes to the worst, we'll give them a good fight before we stop them from getting to us"

"Your job is to get out of here at once" Harry shook his head. "I have lost too many people so far – not losing any more"

"Go" but, as Lavender and himself did so, Harry could not help but wonder why he felt this would be the last time he would see either of the pair.

# # # # #

"End of the tunnel" Lavender said. "How far are we away from the cells?" she asked.

"About forty feet" Harry replied. "We wait here until the hour, give it a minute or so more before we dig our way out, run to the cells and get the girls out of here"

"Assuming this is not a trap"

"Assuming this isn't a trap" Harry agreed.

"How good is this source?"

"He's a Pureblood" Harry shrugged, "But he doesn't hold to those ideals like Malfoy does. He has a lot of Muggle-Born people as slaves, but he treats them fairly well. He does have to torture them from time to time, but he has some of the best medical facilities outside of Hogwarts and St Mungos"

"Why?"

"He's convinced the Dark Wanker that he is trying a kind and caring approach – thinking that the so called 'Impure' will work harder with kind treatment" Harry shrugged. "Whatever the case may be, I have promised him that he has immunity for whatever actions he may have to do to keep his cover"

"I don't like it" said Lavender, "But if Harry Potter has given his word, then that holds good for me"

"I don't think that holds much water beyond the walls of our tent" Harry said dryly and reached into his pocket and pulled out two packets of crisps. "Hungry?" he asked

"Do we have time to eat?"

"Each meal could be our last, so lets make sure it's a feast" and Lavender smiled grimly and the pair started to eat. When the pair had finished, Harry looked at his watch and noted the time before closing his eyes and hoping that all was going to go well. "Well… We all got to go one day" and he drew his wand and aimed at the roof of the drainage tunnel.

#

"What are you doing here?" asked one of the group of Death Eaters heading towards the dungeons.

"I was ordered to brief you on the prisoners" came the reply from the hooded person.

"We know about the little slags down there" the Death sneered. "I don't need you to tell me what to do with the Mudbloods"

"Riiiiiiiiiiiight" drawled the hooded person, "I'll just pop back upstairs and tell the Dark Lord about this shall I?"

"Alright, Alright" the Death Eater's demeanour changed vastly. "What have you got for us?" he asked.

"The Jones girl is the one you have to be careful with" the hooded figure said. "Not only is she in the same year as Potter at Hogwarts, but we think she might have been in that club of his when Umbridge was in charge. Even if she wasn't, her family comes from some very old magic that goes back to a time beyond the Hogwarts Founders – we're lucky to have captured her when she was asleep"

"And the others?"

"The Dunbar girl shared a dorm with the Granger bint, so she is useful to gain knowledge of where Granger might be. The O'Neal girl, on the other hand, has no real value except as a training tool for new recruits – but I have a fondness for her"

"Oh?"

"I like red heads" the hooded figure said. The Death Eaters chuckled and laughed before hearing a dull thud and they all looked through the wooden door that led to the stone steps curling down to the dungeons and cells below.

"What was that?" demanded the leader, withdrawing his wand and moving forwards.

"Oh, _that_… That is the signal for me to end the discussion we're having and kill you all" the hooded figure pulled out his wand and cast several quick killing curses – watching them hit and the bodies fall to the floor with a heavy noise. Quickly, the figure stepped over the bodies before going down the steps – keeping his wand out and in view so he wouldn't be thought of as a threat.

# # # # #

Harry and Lavender got out of the tunnel and took a look around at their surroundings. The walls looked to be very thick indeed with doors cut slightly roughly into them – leading to rooms beyond. In total, thirteen doors gave them pair six each to open, look inside and then move on – with the last one leading to the curving staircase upwards.

"We'll start at each end and work our way into the middle. If we find a girl, get them out as quick as you can and put one of the Portkeys on them"

"Right" and Lavender broke off to the left and started to cast spells to open the warded door.

"Team One to Team Two"

"_Two here_" Hannah replied.

"We've entered the citadel and are taking a look"

"_Copy. Time for evac?_"

"We're going in three hundred. Be ready for immediate departure"

"_Roger – out_"

"Got one!" Lavender called. Harry came out of his empty cell and found Lavender holding a sobbing girl. She was covered in filth, was wearing tattered clothes, had bruises and dried bloody all over her body and very badly emaciated. The girl looked up and saw Harry – gasping and trying to pull away from Lavender and Harry as quickly as she could.

"Morning, Fay" Harry said lightly, "I'm Harry Potter, this is Lavender Brown, and we will be your rescue party for this evening" and Fay Dunbar blinked and rubbed her red and raw eyes in disbelief.

"Potter…?" she whispered. "Is it really you?" and Harry nodded as the girl burst into fresh tears and launched herself at him. "I thought I was going to die without seeing anybody else apart from the other two" she said. "I was going to kill myself" and Harry grimaced and shared a dark look with Lavender.

"Do you know which two cells the others are in?" she asked. Fay nodded and pointed with a shaking hand at two doors in the middle. Before any unlocking spell could be performed, Harry raised his wand and blasted the doors off their hinges and he went inside whilst Lavender took the other – each pulling out a girl. Harry was carrying his in his arms because he'd had to stun her for her own safety – such was the state in that she was in.

"Team Two, this is Team One" he tapped his badge.

"_Two here_" Hannah replied.

"The lions are out of their cage, and we're on the way"

"_Understood – you better go first_"

"Right" said Harry. "Talk to you in a moment – out"

"Who was that?" asked the tallest of the now rescued trio of girls.

"Some friends of ours" Harry replied. The sound of footsteps echoed through from the staircase and the traumatised girls froze like deer in headlights. The two wand carriers aimed at the doorway as the door was pushed open to allow admittance to a hooded figure.

"I thought I'd find you still here" the male voice spoke from underneath.

"Everything taken care of upstairs?" Harry asked.

"Yeah?"

"Who is that?" asked Lavender.

"My contact" Harry replied. "Also, he is the signal to send you all back to the camp"

"Wha–" the girl was cut off as Harry activated the Portkey and sent her, the girls, Susan and Hannah back to their emcampment.

"So, Blaze" he said with a resigned smile, "Where is the transmitter from here?" and Blaze shrugged.

"Second floor" he replied, "But this is a very bad idea of yours" and Harry laughed in return.

"Since when has that ever stopped me?" and the two boys chuckled together before they started up the steps.

# # # # #

"Where are we?" asked Fay Dunbar, looking around at what appeared to be a reasonably sized London flat.

"Castle Greyskull" Lavender said.

"That exists?" she asked.

"No, but we can't tell you anything important until we've checked you out for spells and bugs" and the three rescued girls nodded in agreement. One by one the lights came on, the fireplace lit up and a soft but urgent charm sounded through the tent. Within seconds, the rest of the renegades came running from the bedrooms – startling and frightening the rescued girls and sending them into a panic and looking around for places to hide.

"What the hell is going on here?" asked Dean.

"Harry led a spot of rescuing" Hannah shrugged.

"And just _where_ is Harry?" demanded Hermione.

"He…" Lavender tried to think of the best words to use.

"Yes?"

"He stayed behind to finish some business off"

"That foolish, stupid, silly, idiotic _moron_ of a boy…" Hermione shook her head. "Right, it's nice to see you girls – let's get you checked out and cleaned up. Dean? Can you and Seamus start filling up the baths with water, get as many towels and as much soap as you can?"

"You sure?" asked Seamus.

"Yeah… We need to check them over in _that_ way" Hermione replied and the Irishman muttered a string of Gaelic curses that made Rionach blush a heavy scarlet.

"Right" and the two boys went off to do their tasks.

"Astoria, can you get some soup on the go? Something that's a little watery but with some veg in it?" and the young Slytherin frowned before nodded at Hermione's request. "Padma, go ahead and get all of the medical potions you can and bring them to the library – it's got enough privacy from the others to do what we have to do"

# # # # #

"The moment that I turn this on, the signal will enter the WWN frequencies and you'll be able to speak for about twenty seconds up to a minute. The problem is" continued the hooded figure, "That everybody will know where you are and will come up here and kill you. It's just like you arrogant Gryffindors, Potter, to do something reckless like this" and Harry laughed. "I fail to see what is so funny"

"After all of the life and death stuff we've been though, the secret letter drops we've made and the meetings held… You still can not call me 'Harry'" and there was a silence before the other person started laughing in a quiet and yet deep manner.

"Why not?" he shrugged and removed his hood.

"Now that is better" Harry said, "You look every inch the perfect Slytherin Pureblood, Blaise Zambini"

"I wonder if it is too late to turn you over to the Dark Lord, Harry?" Blaise replied.

"You can bloody well try!" and Harry turned back to the transmitter that was used to send and receive reports from battlefields and raids. With most forms of magical travel cut off, the transmitter worked by using a combination of wizarding wireless and messaging badges to send and receive voice messages.

"Hmm… Do you want to send this live or recorded?" Blaise asked.

"Recorded" Harry fished out a small cylinder and slotted it into the receiver built into the device. "Once this goes off, we're going to leave fast and then do something that should have been done a long time ago"

"Your homework?"

"Well that _would_ please Hermione" Harry smiled. "No… No, we're going to see the new Minister for Magic"

"You're mental" Blaise said in shock.

"As Luna Lovegood would say, 'The only sane people in the world are the mentals and crazies'. Of course, by that token Luna is completely sane"

"A terrifying thought" Blaise shuddered in mock horror. He reached out and pressed the recorded message into the holder more firmly, pressed a button and then looked at his companion. "We're transmitting now…"

'_Good Morning_' a voice came from the small speaker built into the machine. '_My name is Harry James Potter, and I am speaking to you from the location of one of the world's most evil men – the home of Lord Voldemort. By now, most of you will know about the destruction of the Ministry of Magic, and I am proud to say that it was me and a group of people that dared to stand up to fight Voldemort and his bunch of loonies, piss takers and arseholes whom did the damage_'

"Off we go" Harry said, and the pair left the room.

#

Voldemort was disturbed from his sleep by a low level recruit entering his chambers with most of his senior people following close behind.

"Speak, if you want to keep your life…" he hissed.

"My Lord, Potter speaks on the WWN"

"_WHAT_?" Voldemort thundered. "How can this be…? Let me listen" and a portable set was turned up louder for Voldemort to hear.

'…_stry of Magic, and I am proud to say that it was me and a group of people that dared to stand up to fight Voldemort and his bunch of loonies, piss takers and arseholes whom did the damage. Tonight, myself and a small group of people infiltrated and executed a rescue operation of some prisoners taken by the enemy. By now, I am sure that Voldemort and the administration he is the power behind have told you all about Pureblood supremacy, how Purebloods have to be at the top of the pile, how they have to control the Muggles... As you are listening to this, I am moving towards Voldemort's location and will shortly engage him in battle. I do not expect that the outcome will be good for either side, but what I am doing is right. Taking of which, the government that is in place and which is the one to which you rolled over and allowed to take over is illegal and has no authority. When Minister Rufus Scrimgeour was killed during the fall of the Ministry, old magic selected a replacement. However, due to the many number of deaths during that action, the magic kept going down the list until it found the most senior person to be put into place as Acting minister. That person is me_"

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Voldemort roared and his followers backed off with fear.

"_I know speak as that person… Along with the help of those that have chosen to stand with me, I have put into place an acting government which will be the sole legal representation of this country. All positions have been filled, and those in the offices and department of the illegal government are ordered to stand down and await arrest. I know that many Aurors, HitWizards, HitWitches and members of the Department of Mysteries managed to escape the fall or were otherwise away and have gone into hiding – to them I direct my next part message. This is Acting Minister Harry James Potter to all remaining Ministry personnel… You are hereby ordered to regroup for a counter attack – standby to receive new orders. To the person calling himself Lord Voldemort, I have but this to say to you… Escaping prisoners are not the only things that can go kaboom in the middle of the night_" and Harry's voice faded and the wireless set returned to normal.

"What does Potter mean?" asked one of the Death Eaters. Voldemort said nothing before what little colour remained in his cheeks drained as he figured out what Harry was meaning.

"OUT! EVERYBODY GET OUT OF HERE!" and he rose from the bed, grabbed his wand, robes and a few other items and portkeyed away.

#

**BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM**

The explosion that Harry had set off with the help of Blaise ripped through Riddle Manor as all sorts of potions and magical items added their mix to the violent detonation. As the pair watched from a small hill together, they could hear the sounds of the dead, dying and injured as they were caught up in the balls of flame and sheets of fire – consuming every single thing in their paths.

"That was satisfying" remarked Blaise.

"I will not disagree with that" Harry said dryly. He took his wand and aimed it at the person stood beside him. "You ready?" he asked. Blaise took a deep breath and nodded before Harry cast a number of spells causing deep wounds that would, thankfully leave no scars when treated right.

"That fucking stings" Blaise hissed.

"Well its supposed to looks convincing" Harry shrugged.

"You know, a lot of innocents had to die today" Blaise looked back at the fire.

"Well the Death Eaters are hardly innocent" Harry remarked, "But your point is well made… If I had been able to do so, the elves would have left before the explosion. But if they'd gone, then it would tip off the Death Eaters to something going on. That fact remains that to win this war we must do so by all necessary means – including the deaths of some innocents"

"Can you live with that?"

"I _have_ to live with it" Harry replied sadly. "I know that one day, should we win the war, I will have to account for my actions along with my friends"

"No granting yourself immunity?"

"If I were to do that, Blaise, I would be no better than those we are trying to defeat… No, I shall have to account for it one day – but then again I might not survive it"

"Still got a death wish, Potter?" Blaise asked.

"No, but if there is an opportunity to end all this and all it costs is my death…" Harry turned away from the building shell of a building. He had had too much of the sights, sounds and smells of burning flesh. "Are these all the supplies?" he asked, gesturing to the piles of boxes around them.

"Yeah, everything that I could think would be of use is there" Blaise frowned. "I suppose you better hit me with something and then activate my Portkey"

"Right" and lashed out with a right hook – his left hand tapping the Portkey around Blaise Zabini's neck. A few seconds later, after casting a wide ranging spell, he Portkeyed away and directly into a slap in the face from one very pissed off Hermione Granger.

**A/N:**

**First of all, I apologise for the somewhat long delay in updating this fic, I had some bad news that took me by surprise and caused me to lose all interest in writing due to sadness and some grief. I have the sad duty to inform those that did not already know of the death of my good friend and fellow author Eric, known here as sinnighthawk We'd spend hours talking on facebook and skype about plot ideas for my fics and was a good friend in the three years or so that I knew him. My last message from him was a review for my Doctor Who story which will be updated within a week or so – I just couldn't find the words to form a complete chapter for well over a month and a half – I just hope that you all like this one…**

**Moving on, I hope you all do like this chapter and found it to be a good chapter – certainly got a bit of everything here. Just so people know, when Harry talks to "Blaze" he is talking to Blaise Zabini – it's a code name. I'd like to see in your reviews who you thought the informant might have been – should be fun that!**

**For those that may guess regarding Lavender - yes, it did happen to her and will be explained in a later chapter.**

**As for the next chapter, I shall reveal only the title and let you see what you make of it**

**The Return of Ariana Dumbledore**

**With that little tidbit, I shall leave you with the reminder to check my profile page for the three stories that are being worked on**

**Regards**

**Pixel And Stephanie Forever**


	6. The Final Message

**The Final Message**

"_The next few months were spent looking after the girls we had rescued, but we also used the time to look through all the paperwork we had stolen in our raid_"

"_Why do I fear that was not the end of it_" Shah asked

"_That is because it was not… From what we knew, we were the only group that was still free and willing to fight back. Any others had long since split up, gone to ground or had otherwise been broken up by Voldemort and his followers. We'd heard of some Aurors surviving, but after we'd raided Voldemort himself, they ended up going out and getting themselves killed._" Harry sounded tired.

"_Wouldn't the other countries help_?"

"_We asked several times for help from France and Germany, but they both told us to go away and deal with it ourselves. The French reply hurt the most as we had stood by them and helped them in two world wars… The other countries we asked wanted to help but decided not to either – hell, they even kept allowing Voldemort to import new fighters and supplies through their borders_" and Harry chuckled.

"_So what did you do_?" asked Shah.

"_We used a very old and very powerful piece of magic to make sure that Voldemort could not get any more help. The only downside that we knew of was the fact that it would also cut us off from the outside community, but we knew that help would not be coming_"

# # # # #

There was an uneasy air as Susan and Dean finished putting together the device that would send out a message to the Ministries across the entire world. It had taken the collective brains of Hermione and all the Ravenclaws in the group to come up with something fitting and bitter sounding that would put the rest of the world on notice.

"We're finished, Harry" Dean said.

"Awaiting orders, Minister" Susan felt the occasion demanded formality.

"Does anybody have any other thing they want to have added to the message?" Harry looked around at the assembled group that stood in the library section of the tent they were hiding out in.

"I think all that has to be said is in there" said Hannah, gently squeezing Harry's shoulder in support"

"I guess you had better load it up and send it" Harry said. Hermione looked at him before nodding and inserting a small crystal into the device which immediately lit up with flashes that came from within the crystalline structure and filled the air with a gentle humming noise.

# # # # #

The message flashed out to every single point it was designed to reach, causing some shock as the extent of the problem was truly realised for the first time. The end of year meeting of the International Confederation of Wizards was in full swing when they were interrupted by a small Indian witch rushing in with parchment in her hands.

"I assume that you can explain your interruption" asked the Supreme Mugwamp.

"Sir, we've got a message from the British Ministry of Magic, and…"

"And what…?"

"I don't think you are going to like this very much" and the witch handed over the message for reading and watched as the wizard went a deathly shade of pale as the failure sunk in.

_TO ALL MINISTRY OF MAGIC EMBASSIES AND DIPOLMATIC MISSIONS_

_TO INTERNATIONAL CONFEDERATION OF WIZARDS_

_1._

_WITH RECEIPT MINISTERIAL MESSAGE ADVISING THAT EVACUATION_

_MAGICAL BRITAIN MUST BE COMPLETED BEFORE 2359 UK TIME_

_31 DECEMBER, WISH TO ADVISE THAT THIS WILL BE FINAL MESSAGE FROM_

_HER MAJESTY'S MINISTRY OF MAGIC._

_2._

_IT WILL TAKE US ABOUT TWENTY MINUTES TO DESTROY EQUIPMENT AND SUPPLIES._

_ACCORDINGLY, BY APPROXIMATELY 2339 HOURS UK TIME, WE MUST TERMINATE_

_ALL COMMUNICATIONS._

_3._

_IT HAS BEEN A LONG FIGHT AND WE HAVE LOST. THIS EXPERIENCE_

_UNIQUE IN THE HISTORY OF THE UNITED KINGDOM DOES NOT SIGNAL_

_NECESSARILY THE DEMISE OF OURSELVES AS A WORLD POWER. THE _

_SEVERITY OF THE DEFEAT AND THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF IT, HOWEVER,_

_WOULD SEEM TO CALL FOR A REASSESSMENT OF THE POLICIES OF_

_NIGGARDLY HALF MEASURES WHICH HAVE CHARACTERIZED MUCH OF THE_

_LAST DECADE AND A HALF OF PEACE THAT, DESPITE THE COMMITMENT_

_OF PEOPLE AND RESOURCES WHICH WERE CERTAINLY GENEROUS FROM US TO _

_THOSE IN NEED._

_4._

_IT IS CLEAR THAT, FOR ALL ITS HELP IN WARS PAST, NOT A SINGLE COUNTRY CAME_

_TO THE AID OF THE UNITED KINGDOM IN THE HOUR OF GREATEST NEED. _

_THEREFORE, ANY FORIGEN AUROR WILL BE DEEMED AS BEING PART OF AN ARMED_

_INVASION AND WILL BE TAKEN UNDER FIRE UNTIL SURRENDER_

_5._

_TEN MINUTES AFTER THIS MESSAGE IS RECEIVED, WARDS WILL PREVENT THE EXIT _

_OR ENTRY BY MAGICAL MEANS OF THIS COUNTRY. AS A RESULT, EMBASSIES AND _

_DIPLOMATIC MISSIONS ARE AUTHORISED TO ACT AS THEY SEE FIT REGARDING_

_MATTERS OF STATE._

_6._

_IT IS THE INTENTION OF THE MINISTER OF MAGIC TO REMAIN IN THE COUNTRY_

_IN ORDER TO PRESERVE THE SEAT OF HER MAJESTY'S MAGICAL GOVERNMENT_

_IN COUNTRY. IN THE EVENT OF THE MINSTER'S DEATH, ALL POWERS AND_

_RESPONSIBILITIES SHALL BE INSTANTLY DELEGATED TO THE MAGICAL GOVERNER _

_OF THE FALKLAND ISLANDS UNTIL A NEW CHAIN OF COMMAND CAN BE _

_ESTABLISHED._

_**END OF TRANSMISSION**_

_7._

_MAY WHATEVER DEITIES YOU BELIEVE IN HAVE MERCY ON US ALL_

**A/N:**

**Yes, its been some time since this was last updated, but I have had a lot of trouble with a full computer restart needed after my files were infected by a virus check of all things! Anyway, apart from that, I've had some writers block which is why my updates have more or less vanished… I hope to get back to it now that I feel a lot better and able to write as writers block is a terrible thing to have and even worse to get over**

**Regards**

**Pixel And Stephanie Forever**


	7. Fireside Discussions

**Fireside Discussions**

Harry looked up as Rionach entered the library in the tent they were still using. The girl had come on a long way since Lavender and himself had rescued her with the others from Riddle Manor, though she still had her fair share of nightmares and such like - Hermione had said that it was only to be expected.

"Anything I can help you with?" he asked.

"Um..." the normally outgoing Irish girl frowned, blushed red and looked down at her feet. "What do you think about people who like girls?"

"I don't understand" Harry admitted.

"You know what gays and lesbians are, right? Well I like boys _and_ girls"

"Oh..." Harry knew about them, certainly, but he had never encountered one before. "I guess that you are one?" and the girl nodded.

"Does it bother you?"

"Well" Harry started, "It bothers me a little because I have never met somebody like you before, but I don't see what it has to do with me"

"Well relations between members of the same sex are forbidden by law" Rionach replied, looking up to meet his gaze.

"I see" Harry sighed. "What do you want from me?"

"I wanted permission to date another girl - we'll not do anything intimate if it helps"

"I'll do one better" Harry grinned as he realised what she really wanted to know. He turned round and grabbed a pen and a scrap of paper and started writing. "There" he said simply and Rionach took it and read what was on it.

_**Same Sex Law**_

_**As of this date, I hereby overturn all laws and statutes pertaining to the prohibition of same sex relationships for both genders**_

_**Signed**_

_**Lord Harry James Potter**_

**Minister of Magic**

"Thanks" and the girl launched herself into his arms and hugged him tightly. "How can I repay you?" she asked.

"Can I watch?" he asked with a cheeky tone in his voice.

"Prat" Rionach slapped his arm playfully.

"One word of warning though" he said.

"What?"

"If you try it on with Hannah, then we're going to have trouble" and Rionach giggled before kissing him on the cheek and skipping from the room. Harry shook his head before turning back to the planning of his next big raid.

# # # # #

That night at dinner, Harry noticed Rionach walking into the expanded dining area with an arm linked around one belonging to Hermione.

"I was expecting Lavender or maybe Parvati" he admitted to the pair quietly.

"Sometimes my own fingers and vibrator just don't do it" Hermione said. Before the fight, she'd never have spoken like that but the war had made her think certain things were more important than her speech.

"I did not need to know that" Harry said. "But, I do need your help. I want to take my relationship with Hannah onwards and I'm not sure what to do exactly"

"I see..." Hermione looked at her partner who shrugged. "Meet us in the library after everybody has gone to bed and we'll show you what to do that might help. What are you doing?" she asked.

"Just kissing, but she did let me see her in just her bra and knickers before we rescued Rionach" he said.

"Sorry to be blunt, but we needed to know what stage you were at"

"We're not going to have sex or anything" he blurted out, "But I just want to know what will make her happy"

"We'll have to show him" Rionach said with a sigh.

"Do you really think so?" Hermione asked.

"Mmm... I know it sounds really dirty and stuff, but I know you love him as a brother and dearest friend - he'll sit and watch without touching"

"I can always read a book or something" offered Harry.

"No, we'll show you" Hermione agreed to her girlfriends plan. "I know that the Dursleys most likely never told you about this sort of stuff when you became old enough, so we shall teach you. I think Hannah will already know what to do to you in return"

"Has she come to you already?" Harry asked innocently.

"Noooooooo!" Rionach and Hermione exclaimed together and burst into fits of laughter.

"Boys are much simpler to pleasure" Rionach commented. "Lets just sit down to eat and we will talk later" and Harry missed the scheming look shared between the pair of girls.

# # # # #

Harry entered the library to find neither Hermione or Rionach there, but he assume they needed to be ready to show him stuff to use on Hannah. As he sat and idly flicked through a Third Year text on potions, he missed the sound of the door creaking as he muttered to himself.

"Wonder what Hannah even sees in me? I mean she's cute and everything, but she knows that I am going to die at the hands of Voldemort... How can I be selfish and take that happiness away? Besides, with what happened at the Dursleys, I don't even know the first thing about love and romance" he smirked as a memory came to the forefront of his thoughts. After the disaster that had been the date with Cho Chang, he had asked Hermione privately what he could do if he was in that situation again. As normal, Hermione had thrown herself in at the deep end and given him some romance novels to read and taught him to kiss - with herself as test subject.

"I choose the danger" Hannah said quietly. Harry snapped his head round to see the girl standing in the doorway.

"Guess you heard that" he muttered. "Might as well join me…" he gestured at the space on the settee and Hannah came over and sat down. She eyed the half empty bottle of Firewhiskey on the coffee table, took a moment to think and then poured herself a glass and slugged it down in one go – refilling it as the burning sensation trickled down her throat.

"How much of that have you had?" she asked.

"Too much, I suspect" Harry replied. "But it helps me sleep at night"

"Blocks Voldemort out?" she guessed.

"No… gets me so drunk that I pass out and forget what I have done"

"What?"

"After you left with Susan, Lavender and the girls, I gathered the supplies and found other prisoners"

"Why didn't you save them then?" Hannah was curious to know what had affected Harry so much.

"Men, Women and Children all being harvested for their organs which could be used in the Dark Arts… They looked as if they had been kept for months, but I decided to leave them there and blow the place up"

"Maybe it was an act of mercy"

"Perhaps" Harry agreed, "But I can not help but wonder if I could have done something in order to save them"

"We heard the report from you and Lavender… There was nothing you could have done to save them" Hannah snuggled into Harry's side. "Sometimes, Harry, you just have to not feel the guilt and accept that killing them was an act of mercy they needed"

"You're right…" Harry sighed and sipped his Firewhiskey and looked into the fire for some time – both of them silent. "Why?" he asked.

"Why what?"

"Why do you want to be with me?"

"Because I love you" Hannah said, leaning more into him as she spoke. "I feel safe when I am with you, I try to look up to you and I want to be with you for the rest of my life"

"Even though you know I am a killer?"

"Even though" she affirmed. Harry remained silently for several more minutes before draining his glass and setting it down on the table.

"I'm no good at this whole love thing, you know?" and he felt Hannah nodding.

"I know what your relatives did to you, what Dumbledore did to you and what Malfoy and his goons did to you, but I don't care about them – just you"

"I'm going to make mistakes, Hannah… Hell, all I know about sex is the old Tab A into Slot B story. Would you mind if I made mistakes?"

"Making mistakes is what makes us human" the blonde Hufflepuff said. "What makes us more human compared to the Death Eaters, at any rate… I'm like you, Harry, I'm like you then you realise"

"Oh?"

"I lost both of my parents during the last days of the war. After Voldemort had been defeated by you, at least for a while, some of his followers went on a killing spree. One group decided to raid my father's store that he ran"

"What was he?"

"He ran a sort of general store for magicals. They raided it, killed my parents, took what was in the till, took the supplies they could shrink down and carry and left the place – pausing only long enough to set fire to it" Hannah paused before pouring herself and Harry another drink. "By the time the Aurors arrived, the building was burnt down and I survived because of accidental magic"

"I think a lot of people are like us now, Hans" Harry replied bitterly.

"I know…." She sat up so she could look Harry directly in his eyes, and he could see that she was struggling with whatever it was she wanted to tell him. "I... I killed someone, too."

"When?" He hadn't read this in any reports and wondered if this was the first time she'd told anyone about it.

"At the Ministry," she answered, her voice barely above a whisper. "There was a Death Eater that was coming up behind you, so I aimed my wand at him and said the first spell that came to my mind."

"What was it?" Harry asked.

"A banishing charm… I had no idea that that spell could kill, but I guess it can when you hit someone directly in the head." She had stopped looking at him by this point and was just staring off at nothing, the flickering light from the fire highlighting how gaunt she looked. "His head came clean off, and I watched it sail down the corridor. Then there was the blood... so much blood shooting out of his neck as his body swayed before dropping to the floor. But the blood just kept coming and coming... I never knew there was that much blood in a human body. I..."

Harry put his hand on her arm to stop her, and when she finally looked back at him he asked, "Do you regret it?" She took a long, deep breath before answering.

"No, I don't think so. But I probably should. I mean, what kind of person am I if I don't?"

"Well, what kind of person am I?" Harry retorted. "I've killed far more. Men. Women. Children. Even some house elves."

"That was self-defense, though."

"And it wasn't in your case?" Harry asked.

"I suppose," Hannah responded slowly. She looked back at the crackling fire for a few minutes before saying, "I still see him, you know. Every time I close my eyes, I can see him." She looked back and he was surprised at how haunted her eyes looked. "Does it ever go away?"

"I don't know," he answered honestly. "It hasn't for me. Not without the firewhiskey, at least, and that only lasts until I wake up in the morning."

"I guess things will never be the same again for us, will they? We've all changed too much?"

"No" Harry sighed and hugged Hannah to him a bit more tightly. "Either by winning or by dying, all of us will have to account for our actions. I expect that, when called before God, I'll get a room that's eternally boiling"

"Why?"

"Because I have killed, Hannah. I've killed men, women and children. Killed people that we went to school with" he finished the last of the glass. "I'm a monster, Hans, a monster that's fit only for war and death"

"I'll be joining you, I expect" she said quietly.

"Why tell me about what happened? Why now?" Harry asked her.

"It's the end of the world, Harry. I thought I should confess my sins" she whispered. Harry could tell that the normally happy and cheerful girl had been replaced with somebody like him – a killer who couldn't bring themselves to terms with what they had had to do to survive.

"This war will only end in the death of either me or Voldemort"

"If there was another way, would you take it?" Hannah hesitated as she spoke.

"What do you mean?"

"If there was something for you to fight for, something for you to live for… Would you take it?" and Harry took a long time before he answered.

"Yes" he said quietly, "I think I would"

"I know you can't predict what is going to happen to us tomorrow, in a week, a month or however long we're alive for… But I am willing to give us a chance if you are" Hannah said after a long time looking into the shadows caused by the fire place and Harry, for his part, gazed into the crackling flames which warmed the room.

"Alright" he said simply. "I know I am not going to be the best boyfriend that you could get, but will you teach me how to love?"

"Better than that" Hannah slugged back the full glass in one gulp before leaning over and claiming his lips, "I can give you a taster session right now"

# # # # #

Both of them stayed fully dressed so that when they woke up, both of them were easily able enough to slip to their own rooms – Hannah giving Harry a somewhat smouldering kiss on the lips.

"You've spent so much time protecting us and making sure that we have everything" she said as she stepped into the room she shared with Susan and Astoria, "But now it is my turn" and she gave him a hug before closing the door.

"Hello, Harry Potter" Luna's voice made him jump and go for his wand before realising who he was seeing.

"You know not to do that, Luna – ESPECIALLY not me" the raven haired teen tried to calm his breathing. "What do you want?"

"I was wondering if you knew where we might be living after this" she asked.

"Wherever, I suppose – assuming we win"

"Yes, but I mean after we have left this location"

"I guess you overhead me talking to Hannah, Hermione and Susan about what to do next"

"Despite the level of security that this tent has on it, it will be found one of these days. Why do we simply not go and live at Castle Potter?"

"It was destroyed"

"Only the cottage for the Muggle keeper was – the main castle is intact. The place is older than Hogwarts, so the magic in it should be greater and give us more protection" and Harry stared at her in disbelief.

"You mean I can go home?" he questioned her in a hushed tone.

"At least we wouldn't have to stay in this tent any more" and Luna watched as Harry leant against the kitchen counter. She chalked it up on the list of things that Dumbledore had never told him about. The little Ravenclaw was fiercely loyal to Harry and would have killed the former Headmaster if he had just given her the nod.

"I'll… I'll have to think about that" he said. After seeing Luna off to her room, he made a cup of tea before going outside and taking over the watch from Dean. As he sat there, the thought of going home sounded like quite an adventure, but, he reasoned to himself, his thoughts were diverted a little by the delectable derriere of Hannah Abbott. As he sat as sentry, Harry found he was going over his plans in order to keep her as safe as possible from harm. Deciding to put that to one side for a moment, the teen thought about what Luna said. If true, it would give them more space to live, work and train for combat against Voldemort and his forces. A rustling noise made him look back and he saw Hannah step out with a flask containing something.

"Couldn't sleep" she shrugged as if it answered his unasked question.

"Sorry" he replied.

"Don't be… I had kept the secret of me killing a person inside for so long it was eating me up inside" and she sat by him with a conjured chair.

"Its good to talk"

"Says you" Hannah giggled.

"Alright, so I would a horrible councillor" Harry rolled his eyes. "What brings you out here? I would have thought you'd like to gone to sleep"

"I wanted to spend some time alone with my boyfriend"

"Boyfriend…?" Harry blinked and then frowned before his expression cleared. "Oh, well… I suppose we are together now, aren't we. Not sure what sort of dates we can go on"

"Breaking and Entering, Theft, Murder, Assault… Just what every girl needs on a first date"

"Gods… We really are the perfect couple" Harry burst into laughter. It was the first time he had truly laughed for months, and Hannah was glad to hear it echo through the air once more. "Not had anything come close to us entire time, assuming you don't count Squirrels"

"Unless they were armed, I think we can safely ignore them" Hannah replied. "Nice night" she commented.

"Even nicer since you came" Harry said carefully/ "When I was at the Dursley's place. I used to like looking up at the stars – wishing that an angel would come down and take me away"

"What happened?"

"I got Hagrid instead" Harry snorted. "Listen, I spoke to Luna after you went in your room. She said that Castle Potter was intact, but thought it was impossible to get inside because of all the wards"

"Right?"

"I was thinking that we could try and get there – could use it as a base to plan raids and stuff"

"And we could actually sleep in real beds for a change" moaned Hannah. "As much as I like camping out here, sleeping bags are not really meant for this amount of use"

"You could always share my bed" said Harry – wiggling his eyebrows as he did so.

"Maybe I will" Hannah replied. "Anyway, I thought that as I can not get to sleep at all, I'd sit up and keep watch with you"

"Well I'll not stop you, but I thought you girls needed beauty sleep?"

"What I could do with is a day at the beach without a single problem to think about. We've not had a day off since this whole thing started" Hannah could see that Harry was thinking it over.

"Why not…" he shrugged. "We've been at this game for so long that we're in danger of losing ourselves to the darkness. Trouble is that it is still winter – not really the weather for it"

"Maybe it is just enough to go and see one of those Muggle films" Hannah said. "Besides, I might show you how happy I am after the first date"

"Oh?" Harry looked at her with a bemused expression and then the pair snuggled into each other as they sat and awaited the dawn.

#

At breakfast the following morning, Harry explained the plan that he and Hannah had devised.

"If we can get there without attracting the attention of the Death Eaters, it might be possible to have a better place to live and work in. I don't know about the rest of you, but I think it is time that I finally went home"

"It is going to be difficult to get to" Hermione said. "Quite apart from that, Dumbledore, Voldemort and the Death Eaters might well have people in place in case we decided to go there"

"Potter Castle is one of the oldest places – even older than Hogwarts" Padma said. "I think we can expect to find ancient booby traps and a good many defensive spells"

"Would we have to bring them down or would they go to Harry as the last surviving Potter?" asked Hermione.

""Good question" said Luna. "Normally, a few tests at Gringotts and you would take up everything… But we can't get there for them to test"

"So it is basically a wait and see approach" Harry said.

"More or less… If we can get to it, the potion labs alone would be worth the risk. Get those, and we're in with a slight chance to win"

""Win?"

"We have to go up against them sometime" Harry said in reply to Hermione's question. "Right, lets work out a plan of action, review it and then kick arse?"

"Harry?" Dean raised an eyebrow at his friend in bemusement.

"I had a long discussion last night with somebody, and I think that its time we went back on the offensive – we're done running"

#

The boat ran aground gently on the beach and the group got out and scanned the area with wands out.

"I see nobody" said one witch.

"I agree" said a wizard. The tallest of the group, seemingly the leader, nodded in response and took a deep breath and blew it out his nose. It had been a few years since he was on British soil, and he'd not had any intentions of returning until he'd been informed by a friend of Harry's message to the entire magical world.

"Orders, Sir?" asked a second witch. The wizard looked around as if he thought somebody was watching and he could spot them.

"Ve vill try und find Harry Potter und offer vim our assistance"

**A/N:**

**Well, I hope you will like it and find it agreeable to review.**

**The chapter almost ended with something else, but I have moved it to a later chapter. Instead, I came up with this ending which might please a couple of people… The bit with Harry and Luna where Harry hesitates an answer to her plan is the only remnant of this – a thread that starts back in Chapter 1.**

**As of this chapter, the pairing is Harry/Hannah.**

**Cameo in next chapter for the first person to correctly guess who is leading a relief column…!**

**Regards**

**Pixel**


	8. The Day Harry Potter Failed

**The Day Harry Potter Failed**

The group travelled in their purloined van towards Harry's former home – stopping only for fuel and food when they had to. On their last stop before heading deep into the south west of England, Harry stayed behind watched the others all go into the service station with only Hannah to keep him company.

"Want one?" she offered him a cigarette. Unlike muggle ones, these would not actually kill you from cancer, but your magic would become seriously diminished until you were weaned off them and rested. From what the more magic raised of the group told those that were not, it was a fairly common thing to use to relax or simply because you fancied one.

"Sure" he took the offered item and let his girlfriend light it for him. He took a few puffs before blowing out the smoke and leaning against the van's bonnet.

"So what is troubling you?" Hannah asked as she lit her own.

"Still wondering if this is the right thing to do" Harry told her. "A base of operations would give us a better life then what we have now, but it also means we're less able to run away if we have to"

"I'll take anything that gives me a real bed to sleep on"

"I'm just thinking of you" and Harry took a long drag.

"You certainly were last night… Look, the fact is that Castle Potter might give us the chance to find old spells we can use against Voldemort and his Death Eaters. If the place went into care and preservation after your parents died, there is a good chance that we could find valuable potions ingredients…" Hannah paused. "Maybe enough to make a certain potion" she added with a teasing note to her voice.

"Something for Astoria's flu… Oh!" Harry realised what Hannah meant.

"I was thinking, Harry" the Hufflepuff seemed hesitant.

"About what?"

"What sort of training are we thinking about doing? We're all fairly skilled duellists, the war has seen to that, but there has to be other forms of fighting"

"I know what you mean, Hans… We've got pistols on us at all times, bigger stuff for when we need it, but maybe we could all do with some sword practice and flying practice…"

"Flying practice?"

"I haven't ridden a broom in months, Hannah, and the rest of us need to brush up on flying for something I was thinking of. One of the problems faced by people on brooms fighting is the fact they have to do it one handed, right?"

"Yeah"

"So, what if its two people? What if we could put somebody facing backwards as a tail gunner?"

"Well they wouldn't expect that, that's for sur- Oh hell…" Hannah drew one last puff from the cig and tossed it to the ground and put it out with her shoe.

"What?"

"Death Eaters!" Hannah pointed to wear some people in robes were coming from around a corner and heading into the service station.

"How the hell did they find us so quickly?" Harry cursed under his breath. He did the same as Hannah and then the pair both drew their pistols and undid the safety catches. The pair had just started to pull back the triggers when Harry noticed they were all wearing trainers – something not standard issue to Voldemort's forces.

"Christ… I was half a heartbeat from killing one of them" Hannah started shaking and Harry gently replaced the safety catch on Hannah's pistol and put it inside the van. He was just whispering to her, trying to give her some comfort, when the sounds of spell fire and screaming could be heard.

"Oh hell…" Harry hissed. Maybe, after all, they _were_ Death Eaters and simply wearing their robes as a form of open disguise. Pushing Hannah's gun back into her hand, the pair of them raced across the car park and into the service station building. It was chaos as people screamed, yelled and ran away from the flashes of light near one of the small shops.

"Die, traitors!" one of the robed figures said, casting a spell which blew apart a section of wall.

"I think we've found them" Harry said dryly. He glanced at Hannah who frowned, looked down at her pistol, looked at Harry and then calmly flicked off the safety and took a careful aim.

"This one's for Daphne" she whispered and fired three times in quick succession. The Death Eater she had aimed at jerked and fell to the floor and caused the others to look around in surprise. Harry took advantage and fired three times at his own target and dropped him like a lead balloon.

"Hannah, cover this side while I try to work my way around the side and get to the others to cover them"

"Right" Hannah nodded and fired a few more times as Harry ran from the main doors to where he could see Dean, Seamus and Luna hiding behind a cabinet in a store and the raven haired teen took a leap as four spells came dashing towards him – singeing his hair as they just missed him.

"What happened?" he asked, firing off a few rounds and causing the Death Eaters to throw up hasty shields and take cover themselves.

"They just came in here, killed a few muggles in one go and then started attacking us"

"How did they find us?" asked Luna – yelping as some tiling punctured her skin. "That bloody hurts"

"Not sure, but we need to get out of here" Harry said. "Seamus?"

"Yeah?"

"You and Dean cover me as I go to the others. Luna, I want you to run towards Hannah and keep going. You have to start the van up and get it nearer the doors"

"I don't know…" she said with a frown.

"We've shown you how to do it, Lu… Once you've done that, slide into the back, throw open the side door and cover us with one of the rifles"

"I'm not sure that I'm all that brave enough to do it" the younger girl whimpered.

"Luna, you are the only one that can do it" Harry said. "Now get going…" and he pushed her in one direction as he jumped over the fallen cabinet and ran as fast as he could, ducking and diving over debris, bodies and from spells cast at him. Once or twice he fired a few rounds off from his pistol to give him a chance. Seconds later, he reached the other side where the rest of them returned what fire they could.

"How did they find us?" asked Lavender.

"No idea" Harry said. He glanced at the group and saw that they'd taken some rather nasty looking injuries in the engagement so far. Hermione had a huge gash to her head and was propped up against a wall, Astoria looked to have broken her leg, Padma was nursing a wicked wound to the stomach and Susan seemed to be somewhat confused. The rest of them had sported minor to moderate injuries and Harry quickly made up his mind what to do. "When the Death Eaters move to get us, they will expose themselves behind and to the side – Dean and Seamus will put them down from behind while Hannah can fire at them with her pistol. When you started running, don't stop for anything… Just keep going until you pile into that van and grab some rifles"

"Who is driving it?"

"Luna"

"I think I'll take my chances with the Death Eaters" replied Parvati.

"Mmm… Susan, do you think you can manage that run?"

"I… I… I think so" she said in a daze. "I'll give it a go"

"Right, good girl. Rionach?"

"Yeah?"

"Think you can manage Hermione?"

"I did last night" came the humorous reply.

"Not the time, baby" Hermione's weakened response was barely audible over the sound of spell and gun fire.

"Right, we'll do it in groups. Most of us will open fire while the others run for the van and to grab bigger guns. We don't have that much time until the Muggles arrive, and we need to avoid them as much as possible. The girls will go first, then the guys and then I'll follow up with Astoria with apperation" as he finished speaking, he heard the noise of the horn from the van – telling them that Luna was in position and ready.

"Lets go" Padma said, grimacing as she raised her wand, aimed it in the direction of the Death Eaters and fired a couple of killing curses – two of which hit the group and felled a pair of witches. Dean, Seamus and Hannah gave covering fire for the group as they skirted around the outside of the fight and hurried out of the service station building, grabbed rifles and came quickly back. Once they had rejoined the battle, it became a one sided fight and the remaining Death Eaters Portkeyed away or were otherwise killed. Silence suddenly filled the hall as smoke from a few small fires and the gunfire swirled around before Harry came round from the daze.

"Everybody, back to the van" he ordered. "Hannah, Dean – give me a hand to search the bodies…" and they frowned before realising what he meant. The trio hoped that they would carry some sort of paperwork, a map or even a scrap of parchment that gave the location of where they had come from. Sadly, though, all that they found were a few coins, broken wands, some blank bits of parchment and masks they had not bothered to put on.

"Lets get out of here" said Hannah. Dean nodded and hurried back to the van. Hannah was about to go when she turned back to see Harry walk over debris and bodies towards a small bundle. She darted over to see it was not a bundle, in fact, but the body of a small child that had bled out from cuts to the chest and legs. From a glance, it seemed as if she was between four and six years of age.

"I could have saved her" he said dully. "If I had opened fire on them, I could have saved her"

"I hesitated too, Harry" Hannah put one hand on his shoulder.

"I know, but we could still have opened fire on them and then stopped" tears ran down his soot stained cheeks. "Every single time I have done a battle against the Death Eaters, I have always come out on top… Sure, we got them this time, but this is the first time I have ever failed to protect people that could not protect themselves" he noticed a small and battered stuffed toy just outside of her grasp. Hannah silently watched as he picked it up, cast _Geminio_ on it and then put the original under her arm. "Sleep peacefully, little one" he whispered as he closed her eyes. He looked at the copy of the stuffed toy, a smiling pony with slightly unbalanced eyes before tucking it into his pocket and letting Hannah guide him over the debris and bodies.

"He alright?" asked Seamus.

"No" Hannah said, "But then again, I don't think any of us ever will be" and she slammed the door shut as the Irish boy started the engine and sped them away – leaving behind confused and hurt muggles.

**A/N:**

**Short, yes, but I'm having trouble at the moment concentrating on the plot. Please see my homepage for a message regarding why…**

**Cameo to the first person who knows the name of the toy Harry picked up!**

**Regards**

**Pixel**


	9. Two Souls Together in An Ocean of Hurt

**Two Souls Together in An Ocean of Hurt**

The group exited the van on the edge of a wide area that had signs on it stating they were about to enter land owned by the Ministry of Defence. It had taken them a long time to look over old maps to find the rough location where the old seat of the Potter Manor was – maps so old they couldn't be change by secrecy charms and wards.

"You alright, Harry?" asked Hannah.

"Yeah" Harry replied. "It's just so strange to finally get to go home after all this time… A home I could have lived in if it were not for Dumbledore"

"Well I hope it still stands" Hannah giggled. "After all, you did promise me a bed"

"I think there might have been other promises"

"There was…" Luna piped up from behind them. "One of them involved a duck, rubber gloves, a can of green paint and some gardening sheers"

"I don't remember that" frowned Harry.

"Oh, I got a great pensive recording of it"

"Here!" Padma's quiet shout broke up their conversation and followed her outstretched hand. "The wards are weakest here" and she, Hermione, Lavender and Luna used spells to create a hole in the wards which they used to get through.

"Wands out" Harry said. "This place has been left abandoned for years… Who knows what is roaming around here. If you see something that looks hostile, stun it. If its Death Eaters or their supporters we can take them out later" and they put themselves into a half circle and advanced onwards over rough ground, small hills and two separate woods.

"Harry?" Hermione called out to him.

"Yeah?"

"You might want to take a look at this" and the others all rushed up a hill to look into the valley below. A magnificent castle stood in a commanding position, and Harry was sure that it had once been magnificent but now it was somewhat battered and ruined. Parts of it were missing, one of the turrets had been shattered by something, the roof had caved in and it looked a real mess.

"I'm not seeing anybody" said Susan.

"No, but there is a chance they are under cloaks of some sort" Harry mused. "Alright, split into groups and come at it at the same time from all four ways – we'll confuse anybody watching for us"

#

Nobody was found, so they went from wrecked room to wrecked room and cleared the entire place of small magical creatures that had got in. Clearly people had plundered the castle after it had been left empty, but they still found a good amount of potions equipment, supplies, and three usable bedrooms.

"Its not much" Harry said, "But its home… We should unshrink the brooms and then fly back to the van to get the supplies up here"

"We should take a look at what we can do to restore this place. The wards should prevent us from being detected by the Death Eaters when we use powerful magic, but I'll put some warding runes down for safety" Hermione said.

"Right – you and Padma take care of that. Luna?"

"Yeah?"

"You and Lavender go through the stuff already here and make a list. See if it is usable in any way"

"Aye, Aye, Captain" Luna saluted and grabbed Lavender and dragged her away at full speed.

"Me and Seamus will go on the roof and keep a watch for anything" Dean said. Harry thought it over and then nodded – it made sense to have eyes watching the grounds.

"If you see anything, sound a loud alarm and shoot off red sparks" he said at last. "If its Death Eaters, this is where we'll fight them, where we'll battle and where we'll make our stand"

"Right" and the two friends rushed up to the upper parts of the ruined castle.

"What about me?" asked Hannah quietly.

"Need you to help with getting the supplies" Harry said, then added in a quieter voice, "And to make that potion" and Hannah's eyes widened in surprise, longing and desire.

#

The good mood that had come upon finding Harry's ancient family home had vanished that evening the moment they had switched on the radio for the evening broadcast by the Death Eaters. A raid on muggle-borns had resulted in the deaths of an entire family as well as three others – the Death Eater broadcasting taking great delight in saying none of their forces had been injured at all.

"Damn it…" Harry tossed the spoon he was using to eat some soup back to the table with a clatter. "I wish there was something that we could do to give them more hope"

"We're not ready to help ourselves, let alone anybody else" Hermione counselled.

"We can't do anything major" Astoria said, "But what if we confused them to hell and back?"

"How do you mean?"

"What if Harry is spotted in Diagon Alley, at Azkaban, at Hogsmeade… Anywhere we choose, really"

"Polyjuice" Susan said from the corner of the potions lab that they were using to eat in. "If we go from place to place disguised as Harry, the Death Eaters will be running around like headless chickens trying to figure out what was going on"

"It will be dangerous and any one of you could be captured or killed"

"We know that, Harry" Rionach said from where she was in Hermione's lap, "And even though I turned up late to this party, this is what I signed on to do. If we can do the small things and give people some more hope, perhaps the public will turn on Voldemort"

"Some of them" Harry sighed, "Some of them support him"

"So we take them out" Astoria said. "They've killed us, so I do not see why we shouldn't do the same to them"

"Stori… There are only a few people willing to stand up to Voldemort" said taddy. "Everybody else is dead, dying, injured, captured or a confirmed supporter"

"That's what Daphne used to call me" Astoria whispered. "Look, my point is that the supplies we have here will last us a few months – maybe a year if we ration it. If we can get a greenhouse sorted out, we might be able to supplement that. Either way, we have a year left to us to figure something out"

"I know that" Harry groaned as Hannah rubbed his shoulders, "But we've cut off Voldemort from any aid from his traditional off shore bases – but shooting ourselves in the foot by stopping people coming to fight for us. I agree with Astoria that we have to take the fight back to Voldemort again, but Polyjuice is too risky to use right now. We should use this time to practice our magic because we've all had to keep it as little as possible to avoid detection. With the wards set up around here, we can use powerful spells to repair my home"

"I can look up some spells and charms that might help" Hermione offered.

"_After_ me and you sort out the bathroom" said Rionach.

"Its already been done" Hermione replied absently.

"I meant the bath"

"Oh…" and the bushy haired Gryffindor allowed herself to be dragged out of the potions lab and down the debris filled corridor.

"Those two have got it bad" Seamus chuckled.

"As bad as you and Astoria?" Harry raised an eyebrow in amusement.

"How… How do you know?"

"I know and her have been together since Daphne's death" Harry shrugged. "I know she is underaged for that, but I ain't going to say anything about it… Just treat her right"

"That was only the one time" Seamus replied. "After that… Sure we spend a lot of time together alone, but all she asks is for me to read her some old fairy tales and brush her hair in a quiet whisper"

"Really?" Harry's eyebrows shot up in surprise.

"That's all she wants" the sandy haired irish boy shrugged. "I know it sounds like she's being childish, but maybe this is her way of dealing with Daphne's loss"

"Maybe" Harry agreed. "I'll get Luna and Lavender to take a peek in her mind and see if everything is alright"

"Lav?"

"She's… She's got insight into traumatic events" Harry was not going to talk about what had happened to Lavender.

"Well I suppose Luna knows her mental magics" Seamus shrugged. "I hope they can do something for her"

"So do I" Harry replied quietly. "We've spent so much time worrying about others that we've had no time to look at each other"

#

Although there had been a number of usable beds found, it was decided to take the beds out of the tent bedrooms and turn some of them into dorm rooms – it went without saying, though, that Harry had a room to himself.

"Can I come in?" Hannah put her head around the door.

"Of course" Harry replied, setting down his book on Auror battle tactics and looking at the blonde as she closed the door behind her. She was wearing green fluffy slippers and a bright pink dressing gown emblazoned with the word BITCH on the back – Bellatrix had seemingly owned it and Hannah had grabbed it for herself. "So what can I do for my favourite Hufflepuff?"

"Well killing Voldemort would be a start" the girl replied with a smile.

"It is on my to do list, Hans, but I have to clean the guttering out" and the pair laughed heartily.

"Do you remember what I said about us trying?"

"That we would give it a go and that you needed a fully working bathroom"

"Well, about that…" Hannah stepped closer to Harry's bed and he stood to look into her eyes. "I… I had my bath, Harry…" and she loosened the tie around the gown and let it fall to her feet. It revealed that she was clad only in form fitting and comfortable white cotton panties, but it was one of the most erotic things Harry had ever seen. Her voice had hitched as she had said she'd had a bath – childlike in its mixture of fear and longing.

"Hannah…"

"I want to sleep with you, Harry… I mean if that is alright with you of course. I mean if it isn't, I can always just go back to the room with Susan and Lavender. It might make things a little troublesome between us for a while, what with me standing in my knickers, but maybe we don't have to talk to ea– umphhhh" her sudden ramble was cut off by Harry slamming his lips into hers and throwing his arms around her. They kissed like crazy for several seconds before the need for air made them pull apart.

"Sorry, Hannah, I don't know what came over me" but anything else Harry would have said was cut off by him being pushed backwards onto his bed and a rather happy Hufflepuff taking a leap so she landed on top of him. They pressed their faces together again and passionately kissed for a long time. When a few minutes had passed, Hannah rolled onto her back and turned her head to look at Harry.

"I guess we're really together" she whispered.

"I guess so" Harry replied. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

"Positive" Hannah said. "I know that every single day could be our last, and I don't want to die a virgin" the girl blushed as she absently toyed with the edges of Harry's pyjama shirt.

"I know how you feel" Harry said quietly. "Like you said before…" he added at her gentle frown, "I have spent so much time putting the needs of others before those of myself"

"Will you have sex with me?" Hannah asked, looking right into his eyes.

"Yeah" he breathed, "I think I will" and drew her in for another kiss before allowing his hands to roam over her shoulders and up and down her sides. In return, Hannah brought her hands up and undid the pyjama shirt of Harry's.

"I should have done this ages ago" the girl muttered as he shrugged it off to proudly display his upper body – complete with faint scar where the basilisk had wounded him. She trailed a finger down his chest and giggled when she flicked his left nipple. "Oh, so I know the secrets of Harry Potter?" she smirked. "The great and powerful Potter likes his nipples being flicked? I wonder how he likes this!" and she pinched it hard between her fingers.

"Witch!" Harry growled and pinned her to the bed as he slowly removed her underwear – treating her to the same tortures, feelings and sensations as he was getting from her. What seemed like a lifetime later, but what was only around ten minutes, Harry positioned himself just above Hannah's wet and moist core.

"Do it" she panted. Harry nodded, let her take a deep breath and then slammed down with all the force he could muster – breaking her barrier and hitting her cervix like a diesel locomotive hitting the buffers at full speed.

#

"_**OH SWEET FUCKING MOTHER OF MERCY…!**_" Hannah's scream tore through the ancient seat of the Potter family.

"About bloody time" Dean muttered, cast the silencing charm and went back to his copy of the times.

#

After the third round, both teens were fully satisfied and lay back on Harry's bed under the sheets holding each other in a tight embrace.

"I never thought it would be like that" Hannah whispered as she snuggled deeper into Harry.

"Me neither" Harry said, then he laughed gently.

"What?"

"I was just thinking if this is something that I can beat Hermione at to be top of the class"

"Prat" and the blonde Hufflepuff turned her head and drew in her lover for a searing kiss and the age old dance started anew.

#

"I'm going to wake Harry up" Luna said. "He should have been awake hours ago and we're all waiting for him" and the Ravenclaw rose from her seat to do just that.

"Not this morning" Dean said quickly. "Hermione, maybe you should take the morning briefing and we'll fill Harry in later" and thought that had had been doing a lot of filling himself last night.

#

"Morning" Hannah said dreamily into Harry's shoulder as he slowly awoke. He glanced at his watch and saw it was indeed morning – just halfway through it.

"Did we…?" he hesitated to ask even if he knew the answer.

"Yeah… I didn't know it could be like that, Harry. I know this changes things between the pair of us, but I want to say thank you for not throwing me out last night" Hannah leaned on one elbow to look into his green eyes. "You are the best lover in my life"

"I am the only lover in your life"

"That's why you're the best" and the pair burst into childish giggles.

"I want this feeling to go on forever, Hannah, but you do know that what happened means that Voldemort is going to try and kill you or capture you"

"I know" Hannah sighed as she tried to snuggle even closer to Harry. "But I see it as him and the Death Eaters trying to kill me just because I am standing up to him. Besides…" she kissed him passionately on the lips, "The benefits far outweigh the cons!"

#

When the pair finally emerged from Harry's room, Dean and Seamus wolf whistled whilst the girls all pounced on Hannah demanding to know all the details and offering tips on how to reduce a limp that she had _somehow_ picked up during the night and early morning. All hope of discussing what to do with the place went right out the window as Harry and Hannah packed up a small picnic and took it up to the top of the sole remaining tower. They sat and looked out over the vast lands they thought might be able to be used to grow crops to supplement their meagre food supplies.

"Can I ask you a question, Hans?"

"Sure"

"Not tonight, but can we do that again please…? I don't know about you, but it felt like last night and this morning was a release for all the pent up frustrations, anger, hurt… But it also felt nice to wake up with somebody in my arms – is that wrong?" Harry asked in confusion as he looked at a distant spot.

"No" Hannah shook her head and leaned her head back into his chest. "What we shared last night was a release of our passion and emotional stress. From what Hermione has told me about you, quietly of course, it's surprising that you are capable of so much love, compassion, caring and understanding"

"I know" Harry stared harder at the distant spot. "I know what you said before about it going to be hard for us to form a relationship under the conditions we're in now, but I'd like very much to take you out on a few dates"

"Dates?" Hannah chuckled.

"Yeah… I want to be a normal teenager and go on dates with the girl I love"

"You… you love me?"

"I think so. I've never had the chance to be like you or the others, but what I think I am going through with you is love. I know that doesn't make sense" he added as he slipped his hand down for his wand, "But that's the only way I can get it off my chest. In other matters, what the hell are they doing here?"

**A/N:**

**We've been away from this one for a far bit, but we're back to normal. My brain "lump" that has been causing me tremendous headaches turned out to be a swelling caused by a coffee I am allergic to! Incidentally, with the upload of this chapter, I will now be back on a two uploads a week schedule.**

**Anyway… I hope you all like the chapter including the sex scene such as it is. I decided not to be too graphic in this chapter and show that both Harry and Hannah were nervous regarding what they were going to do and then giving in to their base feelings by just outright attacking each other. I dearly hope I captured the mood right there.**

**Answers on a postcard if you want to guess what happened at the end…**

**Regards**

**Pixel**


	10. Intimate Moments and Moving Aims

**Intimate Moments and Moving Aims**

"_It turned out the arrivals were Victor Krum along with a couple of his old school friends as well as Gabrielle Delacour – the young Veela had had a public falling out with her older sister over her wedding to Bill and returned to France shortly before the attack on the Ministry by Voldemort" Harry said to the reporter._

"_You were close to her, were you not?" Shah asked._

"_Yes, but not as close I was to Hannah. With Victor's arrival, we got news of what the rest of the magical world was thinking of doing. Germany, Bulgaria and most of the central European countries were staying right out of it. France was supplying Vampires and Werewolves for Voldemort's cause, Spain and Portugal showed some willingness to help but both of them faced civil war, Italy had been helping by providing shelter to those British persons seeking refuge and Holland simply refused to help us for fear of being attacked next"_

"_What about America?"_

"_THEY BETRAYED US!" the reporter flinched at the tone in the old man's voice. Not only did America help by allowing its people to come over and join the fight for Voldemort, they also gave him money, supplies, weapons, slaves and everything else you could think of. We had often joked about us being against the world, but it was only now that we realised how true that was"_

"_And yet you managed to go on fighting and win some engagements"_

"_We'd take out one or two groups of Death Eaters when we could, raid storehouses for supplies and equipment, but it was not for another three months that we had our first big break…"_

#

"I have been given a report that the Malfoys are holding some sort of meeting for the top Death Eaters as well as those from aboard that have managed to get through the blocks I set up" Harry said from the top of the table that had extended itself to accommodate everybody in the mainly repaired Potter House. "Voldemort is not attending himself, we suspect he will be at Hogwarts, but we have an opportunity to take out a good many of Voldemort's old guard and the leaders of those sympathetic to his cause. I want your thoughts and opinions on what we should do"

"Does this come from the same place as your last big lot of information?" asked Lavender.

"Yes"

"Then I say we trust it" she replied.

"What do you propose to do" asked Hermione.

"My contact is getting a time and location, but we can expect heavy wards around the place as well as foot patrols. Given it is the Malfoys holding it, we can expect Dementors flying around too so we're practicing the Patronus until we go in and do this. This goes without saying, but we're going to take prisoners when possible and question them for everything we can prise out of their minds. Dean and Seamus… you're healing well but still not good at running around – you'll stay behind ready to get the prisoners" Harry said. Both boys looked mad but understood Harry's reasoning. Whilst practicing their duelling and evasion, both had been hit in the legs by gouging curses which had taken days to heal.

"They could be using a lot of old rune based defence systems" Hermione mused. "Susan, any idea what we might be facing?"

"I never went to the Malfoy properties, my Aunt would never allow it, but she talked about the defences put up around some of the larger places. They might have upgraded them over the years, but apart from the standard stuff I would expect poison gas, swamps, air removal, fire…" Susan shrugged. "Who knows"

"Could we fly in over the top of the defences?" asked Parvati.

"Maybe" replied her sister, "But I would doubt it because that would be an easy thing to think of. Polyjuice will be out as they are stupid but not dumb"

"So how the hell do we get in?" growled a frustrated Hermione.

"Could we tunnel in from a distance?" asked Gabrielle.

"Perhaps, but I doubt that we'd be ready even if we used magic" Harry shook his head.

"Maybe we don't have to" Astoria spoke up. She'd kept normally quiet during the meetings they'd been having, preferring to sit in the laps of either Dean or Seamus and have her hair brushed and stroked. As the boys had said to Harry before, that is all she seemed to want from the pair.

"What do you mean?" asked Padma.

"A lot of houses that are owned by purebloods used to belong to muggles. As they don't use magic, they had to have huge sewer pipes for waste and stuff… If your contact could find out if this is the case for the target location, we'd have a tunnel already made for us"

"That's genius" Seamus said, dipping his head down and giving her a light kiss on her head.

"Its just an idea" she said. "It doesn't mean that I am right"

"No" Harry agreed, "But it means that we have the start of a plan. Right, we'll go on the assumption that Astoria is right and there is a sewer pipe. We'll start learning and practicing the combat magic we already know in the morning. Hannah… Can you stay behind?" and the meeting broke up. Most of them drifted through to the newly repaired kitchens to get something to eat, some of them decided to start a little bit of reading whilst Astoria changed into her pyjamas, got into bed and fell asleep to Seamus singing an Irish lullaby.

#

"There's something happening that you don't want even Hermione to know" Hannah said as the door closed behind Victor Krum.

"Luna had a vision… At least one of us is going to die during the attack"

"Did she say who it was? Maybe we could have that person stay here" but Harry shook his head sadly.

"Luna said that it is a fixed event – nothing we could do could prevent it. She did say it wasn't you… You have something else to do it seems"

"Yeah" she waved her wand and the bowl, knife, towel and containers came over.

"I don't think that Luna meant this" Harry chuckled as he moved to sit in the chair with the headrest. Over the course of the next half an hour, Harry allowed himself the luxury of relaxing as Hannah gave him a shave the likes of which he had never had before. The pair found it to be very intimate, loving and, for Hannah at least, a way to show how much she appreciated Harry and what he had sacrificed to save them all – not including the late and much missed Daphne. As she carefully used the razor knife on Harry's cheeks, she wondered which of her friends would be the next to die. After she had wiped the last of the shaving foam off, she put some soothing oil onto both of her hands and rubbed it into the skin on his face. The teenager did not mind at all that Harry had fallen asleep – so tired was he that the relaxing feeling of somebody shaving him lulled him to the land of nod.

"Harry, time to wake up…" she said at last – shaking him gently as she spoke. It took a minute before Harry was awake and he apologised. "Hey, you deserve to fall asleep" she whispered, pulling him into a deep and loving kiss – smelling the lotion and oil she had put on him moments ago.

"It almost nine" Harry looked at a nearby clock. "We should go and get some sleep – who is on watch?" he asked.

"Krum and one of those French witches" Hannah replied. She blushed before looking away which get Harry's attention.

"What?"

"Would you mind if I stayed the night with you?" she whispered. "I don't want to have sex or anything, though I'll let you if that is what you want, I just want to have a peaceful night with you were I fall asleep and wake up in your arms"

"You'll set tongues wagging" said Harry with a tired but amused look.

"Screw them" Hannah replied.

"Already moved on from me?"

"Prat" she slapped his arm.

#

The following morning, before Hannah awoke, Harry had got up, dressed and slipped out to meet his contact. When he came back, his close friends as well as Gabrielle were up and getting ready for a long day ahead.

"I'm surprised you are up, Mademoiselle" he said.

"I like to get up extra early and watch the sun come up" the little Veela said. "It makes me wonder about the simple magic in a sunrise – the start of a new day"

"Don't you dare change that mindset, Gabby"

"Why?"

"Because you are still very innocent"

"I am, how do you English say, not so very innocent"

"Oh?"

"I had to kill people… Am I a bad person for killing people?" she asked him.

"Did you take pleasure in it?" he asked.

"Sometimes… A little beet" her almost perfect English slipped a little. "I wondered around France before meeeting with Victor and found some Death Eeeaters torturing some innocent muggles. When I was finished, two of them were dead and the other was dying – I was overjoyed zhat zey would never hurt people again"

"That doesn't mean you are a bad person, Gabby… Hell, I have had to do things in this war that nobody should ever have to do"

"Like?"

"I won't tell you" Harry said.

"But I zam just like you…"

"No, my sweet Gabby, you are better then me"

"How zo?"

"Because you had a family that loved you, were never beaten or abused for making a mistake, never had to kill somebody at the age of 11" Harry sighed and shook his head. "Despite everything you have faced, Gabby, I think you are one of my very best friends"

"Really?" she asked, her accent getting back to grips.

"Do I tell lies?"

"Eet has been known"

"That's it – I hereby ban you from talking to Luna" and Gabby giggled – the first real laughter he had seen in the girl for days. "Joking aside, though, the fact that you took joy in killing the Death Eaters but felt bad afterwards means that you are not as evil as they are" and the little Veela was quiet for several moments.

"Will I get to go to heaven?" she asked. "I know that I have killed, but maybe God will understand I had to do it to save others"

"I'm sure he will" and he saw movement out of the corner of his eye and noticed Luna looking very hesitant. Say, why don't you go and get breakfast?" and he gave her a sweet kiss before she skipped off. "You know who it is, don't you?" he asked simply.

"Me"

"Fixed or variable?"

"Fixed"

"Damn…" Harry ran his hands over his face. "How the hell can I order you to take part knowing you are going to die? What happens?" he asked.

"You know I can't tell you that, Harry" Luna whispered quietly. "If the events of my death are changed, terrible things could happen"

"A bit late on that, aren't we?" Harry replied – sarcasm dripping through his voice.

"Knowing how I die, Harry, is the same as going back in time and changing something major"

"I've done it before"

"You have?" Luna was curious as to how that had happened.

"Long story… Luna, I am giving you a direct order to stay here when we go in"

"_You can not change my death – there is no way for you to win this time_" she hissed at him

"A wise muggle once taught me to never believe in the no win scenario" Harry smirked at her and then nodded.

"And what are you going to do to stop me from dying?" Luna put her hands on her slim hips and tried to look angry.

"Nothing" Harry admitted, "But Susan is about to stun you"

"Wha–" Luna was cut off by the stunner that hit her square between the shoulders. She fell forwards and was caught swiftly by Harry who was handed a pair of magic restraining handcuffs.

"I thought you might need them" said Susan.

"Thanks"

"So what do we do with her?"

"Keep the handcuffs on her, tie her up, stick a silencing charm on her, place her in the store room and seal the door. I don't care what she says, Sue, I am not going to lose another bloody friend if I can help it"

"I take it your meeting went well?" Susan changed the subject.

"Yes… And no"

"Okay, so why not pick one?"

"I met with my contact, but he gave me some bad news. Voldemort is massing an army which he means to start attacking the Muggles with and also that the Malfoys moved their gathering up to this afternoon. He also said that Dumbledore, the Order and a number of his supporters will join in this attack from Hogwarts – and bringing the students with them"

"_Imperio_?" Hannah asked, standing in the doorway dressed only in some slippers and a dressing gown. Harry briefly wondered if she was wearing anything under it – she had been when he left her, but anything could have happened since then…

"That is what we have to assume. We can't say who will be there willingly and who will not be – therefore we're going to take care of that problem" Harry held Hannah close to him and felt his body react when he felt her nakedness underneath.

"How?"

"The students selected are already at the Malfoy place getting trained. According to my contact, the first attack on the muggles will take place in three days – therefore we're going to have to let them carry out their attack whilst we sneak inside and take everybody out…"

#

"… everybody out" Harry outlined his plan to everybody except Luna after breakfast. "If you are unsure about a target, try to take them alive for questioning – we can always execute them later"

"Do we know if any of the wards are weak or if Astoria's idea works?" asked Padma.

"The wards are very strong, but not so much at the back because of the cliff face. There are tunnels leading all the way back up to the castle, but they are all covered by heavy shielding" Harry said, "But we have one advantage to that. My contact says that electrical storms negate the effect and there is a huge storm going to hit tomorrow evening"

"How is that going to help us?" asked Gabrielle.

"I should have thought it was clear" Dean said. "Those of us that are going will be in the tunnels when Voldemort and Dumbledore launch their attack. Once they have gone, we break in and take down and out everybody we see"

"As well as grab all of their paperwork and money" said Lavender. "Harry, I could look into their minds and see what they know. If they are innocent and there under duress, we can simply hold them somewhere. If they are there willingly, execute them on the spot" and there was a general agreement with that thought.

"Then it is settled. Those that are capable of fighting will train as much as they can today and part of tomorrow. Those that are not coming with us can still help out by getting supplies ready for at least one full day of being in the tunnels as well as healing potions"

"What changed?" asked Susan.

"We're done running" Harry replied. "We're done with running, hiding, sitting around like scared children wondering if the next attack will kill one of us… If Voldemort wants a fight, then I'll fucking give him one" and a loud cheer went around the room.

"What about Luna?" asked Hermione.

"Luna said she saw herself being killed, but I like to think outside the box – we get a prisoner and use Polyjuice. We will not win the war by short measures – we will win it by all necessary means"

"You know, a lot of them will bring their children… Ones that have never started Hogwarts" Hermione traced a finger on the table.

"I'm not going to kill children out of hand, Hermione, as that would make us as bad as they are… But if they throw cursed objects at us, then we'll take them out the same as any other attacker. We have less than twenty four hours – lets get moving"

**A/N:**

**We've been away from this one for a far bit, but we're back to normal. Incidentally, with the upload of this chapter, I will now be back on a two uploads a week schedule.**

**For those of you that don't know, I have a twitter account (and have done for a while now) which I've decided I will now use to post scheduled releases of fanfics and to keep you up to date with what's happening with me. The account name is PhilsStalkers**

**Well, hope you leave reviews in the normal manner**

**Regards**

**Pixel**


	11. A Short Interlude And Short Betrayal

**A Short Interlude And Short Betrayal**

"Cosmic thoughts?" Hannah asked as she stepped into the study.

"I'm just worried" Harry sighed as he rubbed his face through his hands and sighed.

"Over?"

"Over the fact that I have this feeling that not all of us are coming out of this alive" Harry replied, leaning into her hug as he spoke. Only when the two of them were alone could he both afford and allow himself to act more like the worried person he really was. The only other person he allowed himself to relax around was his long-time friend, Hermione.

"You said it yourself, Harry, that this is a war and people are going to get injured and killed in wartime… We've taken every effort, but sometimes it's never enough"

"I know, Hannah, but I can't help but worry all the same" he replied. "We've locked Luna up for her own good, but Lavender thinks there is something else going to happen"

"Lavender?"

"Yeah… She's a Seer, like Luna, but she Sees things much more clearly. Where Luna can See different outcomes, Lavender can only See things once they start to take affect"

"That makes no sense whatsoever"

"Doesn't to me" he admitted with a chuckle as he swirled around the glass of whisky he had in his hand. "Are we all packed and ready to go?" he asked her.

"Hermione is doing equipment and supply checks" the girl replied, moving to wedge herself between the chair arm and his body. "I think she was thinking of going over the plans again, but I said we needed a rest"

"We can go over them when we're in the caves" Harry agreed. In the attempt to use as little magic under the Malfoy property, he'd ordered that their supplies be split into multiple backpacks so that if one of them didn't make it, most of the rest would get through. The Muggle Born, raised and aware had taught the others how to set up tents and sleeping bags as well as how to make a small camp which would be needed for the day and a half spent under the Malfoy house.

"So, what do you plan to do now?" asked Hannah.

"Finish this glass, see if there are any left overs and then go to bed" Harry replied.

"Oh… I thought maybe you were up for something else" and Harry raised a bemused eyebrow.

"Not before a battle, surely?" he smirked.

"Prat!" Hannah smacked her boyfriend's arm. "I was thinking maybe me and you could steal a few supplies and watch a movie or two. I wish we could go into that Muggle town, but the chances of being spotted are huge"

"That is what we are fighting for, isn't it?" Harry asked after a moment. "The right to go and watch a movie, the right to run around anywhere we want to and the right for sex"

"Oh, you have that right at any time" Hannah purred.

"True, but Victor said it rather put him off his breakfast" and the teens burst into laughter. "You know, sometimes I wish we could just leave all of this behind and grow old together"

"Why not?" asked Hannah. "Most of the magical part of this country has either been killed, captured or otherwise is accepting of Voldemort's take over – there's nothing for us"

"Could you do that?" Harry asked her.

"Seriously?" Hannah sat straighter. "I guess I could" she replied after a while.

"Well lets try it for a while" Harry stood and helped his girlfriend to her feet. "Get some stuff on and we'll go watch a film or go dancing or something"

"I'll tell the others"

"Just us, Hannah – I want to be Harry Potter and not somebody who has to fight every day of his life to keep those he loves safe"

"And I also want that for you… I'm no Ravenclaw philosopher, for sure, but I fear we are losing ourselves in what we have to do – that we put everything else before ourselves"

#

"This is amazing…" Hannah held Harry close as the pair looked out over the lake with the lights of a distant village reflecting on the slightly rippling surface. After going in secret to the cinema, they'd taken a short walk before going for an exquisite meal before heading down to the small harbour by the edge of the lake.

"Its peaceful alright" Harry agreed. "I bet most of the people here don't even know that anything is happening. To them, there is no war, no fear, not that much hate, no wondering where the next meal is coming from… You know, half of me is tempted to tell Voldemort that if he leaves us alone, I'll let him run what he has now"

"Really?"

"I've done too much fighting, Hans" Harry shrugged, "But I am expected to keep on fighting. Hermione hasn't said anything, she knows me too well, but the others seem to think I can pull something out of my hat and win"

"Why don't we?" asked Hannah.

"Maybe after the war"

"But Hermione has that Time-Turner" Hannah pointed out. "We could go and get it, go back a week and then have that time to ourselves" and, after blinking for several seconds, Harry realised the plan was actually sound and decided to be selfish about his life and do what he wanted. "We could hire one of the cottages in the Yorkshire Dales or something" he said at last.

"Sounds good… All we need are some clothes for the week, a few bits of our stuff and we can fuck off out of here" Hannah finished the last of her cigarette, stubbed it out on the railing and tossed it into the lake.

"Clothes?" Harry asked in an amused tone as they Portkeyed away.

#

Two days into their impulsive holiday, the pair sat on the settee – Hannah curled up with her legs tucked under her - in a little cottage they had rented for a week and looked at the fire as they listened to the radio as it played some soft music.

"You regret this?" asked Harry.

"I regret our friends not being able to join us" Hannah said carefully, "But I am enjoying the fact I am spending time alone with my boyfriend – no worries about the war!" she laughed and snuggled into Harry some more. "Can we buy this place to live in after the war?" and Harry thought about it and then agreed.

"If both of us make it through this, Hans, this will be where we live on weekends. Did some reading of my family history, and it says that the main residence has to be at the old homestead"

"Oh… Well we can still live here as much as possible" Hannah said. She picked up the bottle and poured both her and Harry another large measure of wine. "Do you want to sit up and listen to the news or go to bed?" she asked as the log fire crackled and hissed.

"Bed, I think" and both teens giggled and finished their wine before getting up and going upstairs to the single bed. They undressed down to their underwear, got in and pulled the covers up tight around them. They cuddled together and listened to the gentle breeze through the trees as the water from the lake lapped on the edge of the small beach. As they lay there, Harry's left hand dropped slightly under the covers to find Hannah's cloth covered core and began to make tiny circles – eliciting a few squeaks from the girl.

"The Muggles will hear us" Hannah whispered as she felt herself start to get turned on.

"So what…?" Harry whispered back as he turned his head and kissed her gently on the lips. "Now this… _This_ is what we're fighting for!" and they giggled like the carefree teenagers they should have been as they began to make love to each other. Due to the little amount of clothing on already, it was not long before the pair of them were naked with Harry poised over a blushing Hannah Abbott with lust and desire in her eyes.

"Fill me" she told him, "Don't be gentle… I want you as rough as you can manage" and, after a check on positioning, Harry slid into Hannah's heated core with all the force he could. Hannah arched her back and mewed in delight as her tight space was stretched almost painfully – she was hard pressed not to come right then and there. Over the next hour, the pair expressed their feelings, wants and desires for each other and fell into a deep sleep in each other's arms – all thoughts of the war against Voldemort far from their minds.

# # # # #

After they had showered, had breakfast and packed up a bag full of sandwiches, they made their way down to the boathouse that came with their cottage. Inside lay a small motor boat the pair planned to use to go to the sole island in the middle of the lake where they'd have a picnic, go exploring like little kids and maybe have a swim before going back to have a meal in the pub by in the far town. Once the boat was out from the dock, Harry nudged the throttle to the halfway point before steering to the island – Hannah in the leather seat beside him. The wind blew through their hair as they sped through the water and Harry swapped places, after a while, with Hannah so she could do some steering as well. He sat back and let her do some of the work, not that it was too hard really, and thought about the few days so far he had spent alone with her. He had never been as happy as he had been, not even the yearly arrival at Hogwarts for a new school year, before getting into a relationship with Hannah. The Hufflepuff complimented him and made up for his weaknesses in ways that not even his best friend Hermione could do… She'd helped him get through his emotional troubles, with Hermione's help and insight, and showed him what love really was and that he had earned the right more than her to a peaceful and happy future.

"Do you want to take over?" Hannah's voice roused him from his thoughts as she glanced from the wheel back at him. It took him a few moment to realise he had dozed off and they'd come to a complete stop. "Relaxing, isn't it?" she smirked.

"Yeah" and he shook his head with a smile before changing places with her – feeling a little squeeze on his backside as she moved behind him.

Sometimes it was nice to be happy…

#

"My Lord, two of the group are not accounted for" a masked man bowed low as he reported to Voldemort.

"Which two are they?" Voldemort asked.

"Potter and the Abbott girl"

"Potter is missing? Wherever he is with this girl, we can not let the opportunity to go past us – gather all of the forces here in five minutes and seize all of their friends. You have just ten minutes to do this before you must return"

"I will burn down his house at once, My Lord"

"_No…_ I want the Potter family home to be intact – nothing, apart from accidental damage, is to be destroyed or you will answer to me"

"I do not understand"

"I want Potter to be fearful, to worry, to tire… One day he will come to see me and I will kill him before his pitiful band of followers. Go now, Victor Krum, go now and do my bidding…"

**A/N:**

**Well **_**THAT'S**_** a shocker!**

**Well, hope you leave reviews in the normal manner**

**Regards**

**Pixel**


	12. Aftermath, Traps and Plans

**Aftermath, Traps and Plans**

"What the hell happened here?" asked Harry. He and Hannah stood in front of a slightly smouldering Potter Mansion looking at the damage it had taken in some sort of fire fight.

"How did Voldemort find us?" Hannah was scanning the area with her wand – trying to find anybody still alive.

"No idea"

"This way" Hannah pointed towards an area where the roof had fallen down close to the bedrooms. The pair of them dumped their bags and clambered over the piles of debris into Hannah's wand pulsed strongly with the life of somebody trapped underneath.

"Can you tell who it is?" asked Harry carefully.

"No, but I don't think it is one of Voldemort's lot because I don't see any bodies or cloaks or even masks" his girlfriend replied. With Harry aiming his wand at the pile of debris, Hannah levitated and banished it – revealing a battered and bruised Lavender and Astoria. Their clothes were caked with dust and filth and patches of dried blood which meant one or both were injured badly.

"Harry!" Lavender croaked. "They… We… Loads…" the girl began to talk rapidly.

"Report!" Harry barked. He knew he sounded harsh, but concentrating on something would help Lavender to calm down.

"We were attacked by Voldemort's forces" she sniffed. "Krum is a traitor – bastard led them right to us"

"He is a dead man" said Hannah with certainty as she checked over Astoria's wounds. The smaller girl had not awoken since being uncovered so she assumed there was some head injury.

"How did you manage to escape?" Harry asked.

"Astoria was asking me about make up when they attacked us. We managed to hold our own together, but the Death Eaters brought the house down on us. They took prisoners, I know that, but they also took their own fallen away"

"So we couldn't do a trace" Harry spat. "Are you the only ones?"

"I don't know" she said sleepily. "The last I remember was Dean and Seamus still fighting in the west wing, but then everything went blank"

"Okay" he patted her gently on the shoulder. "You just rest up for now" and he looked over to Hannah. "I'm going to go and have a look around the place and see if anybody else made it through this alive"

"We've been here a day or two" whispered Lavender, "And I've heard nothing at all. We all know the search and rescue procedures, but nobody found us until you came" but Harry looked all the same. When he came back half an hour later, all he had to show was a small sack of dinted tinned foods, a few clothes, some shrunken cooking items and a note that had been torn from where it had been pinned.

#

"_Why would they leave you a note?" asked Shah._

"_It was left as a warning and as a message" Harry sighed and rubbed the sides of his head. "They'd assumed that any falling debris had caused death or critical injuries which would cause it… At this point, we were on our own and without much in the way of supplies as the attack had destroyed most of it other then what we spent another half day in salvaging"_

"_But what did the note say?" Shah asked as she wrote in her notebook._

#

_Harry,_

_There was nothing I could do to stop this_

_But I did manage to save at least two._

_Your friends have been taken to Hogwarts to be interrogated, tortured and then killed publically to make an example to anybody thinking of helping you. Meet me in five days at the outer edge of the Forbidden Forest and I will get you inside_

Your Friend

"It's a trap" Lavender said.

"Of course it is a trap" said Hannah.

"I don't think so, but if they are being held at Hogwarts then to Hogwarts we will go" Harry looked at Lavender. "How is she?" he asked. In response, Hannah stood and led him a little bit away from the wounded Gryffindor.

"Not that good… I checked her over and I think she has injuries to her spine as well as the rest of her back, her left leg is broken, she has crushed and broken ribs, fractured skull and last, but not least, organ damage. Frankly, I'm surprised she is even alive"

"Can we move her?" Harry frowned.

"Not really, but we don't have a choice to be honest" Hannah replied. "If we can stay here until tomorrow, perhaps we could move her using the van with cushioning charms and such"

"Right… We're going to have to live like Muggles almost completely" Harry said. "We have enough money for fuel for the van, but food is going to be difficult to get hold of. I guess we'll have to sleep in the van and take turns in driving it"

"Har… Harry?" the pair turned to see Astoria stir from her sleep, sit up and rub her eyes.

"Take it easy" Hannah told her and gave her some water to sip from.

"We don't have to sleep in the van" she croaked. "I got the magic tent" and she weakly reached into her pocket and tried to withdraw the tent which was in its small storage size.

"I'll get it" Hannah said, but Astoria shook her head.

"Harry"

"Why me?"

"As Daph might have said, 'I might as well it be you brushing my bits'. I might as well get some fun out of this" and Hannah shared an amused glance with Harry as the boy reached into Astoria's right jean pocket and grabbed the tent.

"Story, if we make it through this, I promise to fondle your bits _without_ the clothes on"

"That…" the girl coughed, "That gives me something to live for" and there seemed to be some kind of hesitation.

"Something wrong?" Harry asked.

"Oh…! Erm, nothing that you could really deal with right now – just a dream I had"

"Want to tell me?" Hannah asked.

"Maybe later… I kind of feel sleepy" and she dozed off.

"That was interesting… Look, when can we move Lavender tomorrow?" Harry asked.

"In the morning. I would say later, but I know that we have to move as quickly as possible"

"What have you given her?"

"What was left from her medical kit" Hannah replied, "But that's not much – most of it was smashed when she and Astoria were buried. I've managed to eke out what we both carried as well as Astoria's, but it is still not enough… I know what to do from reading the books – we both do – but its not the same as actually learning it! Lav needs specialist attention for the spine at the very least, and we can't exactly leave her at St Mungos, can we?"

"No" Harry replied. "We can't take her to a Muggle place either. The only thing we can do is to take her with us and hope for the best"

"But where are we going to put her when we go into Hogwarts?" Hannah asked him.

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it" Harry replied.

"That's… that's not always a good thing" his girlfriend chuckled. "Look, the pair of them are asleep for now… Lets have another look around for stuff we can salvage before we get some sleep"

"I'll take the first watch when we do"

"Okay" but Hannah had the feeling Harry would put herself above him.

#

"Harry…?" Astoria whispered as she awoke once more.

"Hey" Harry moved over to sit a little closer to her. "How are you doing?"

"Not too good" she muttered. "Is Lavender alright? She took quite a beating"

"She's… Look, I won't lie to you, Story – she's alive"

"Oh" the girl looked down at herself. "I seem to be much the same"

"You are far better off than she is" Harry retorted. "Look, we're going to make one final attack against Voldemort and Dumbledore… The plan is for me and Hannah to try and sneak inside Hogwarts, get as many students out of the place and then go hunting for the pair of them"

"Tell me when and where"

"Astoria…" Harry sighed. "Astoria, the things is that neither me or Hannah is expected to survive this attack. The only reason we are going to do it is mainly because we have run out of time, out of options and out of luck. We can not live like this and hope to win"

"So…? Tell me when and where"

"You could die"

"I know" Astoria replied, shifting slightly to sit up. "Daphne knew that when we joined up with you. I'm not as philosophical as some people might be, but if there is a fate for me, then it is to die facing my fear and my enemies on my feet. I promised to see this through to the end, and this is what I will do"

"That's a lot of courage you have"

"Well" Astoria giggled, "Maybe we could spare five minutes and see if the Sorting Hat would sort me into Gryffindor"

#

"Harry? Wake up… Its almost seven" Hannah's voice made Harry open his eyes slowly before he fully awoke.

"We alright?" he asked as he took in the cold morning air.

"I think so" Hannah replied as she handed him a cup of tea. "I've checked Lavender as best as I can using the few spells I know, and I _think_ she's alright to move into the van. Astoria woke up an hour ago, couldn't get back to sleep so I sent her to the greenhouses to see what she can salvage in the way of fresh fruit and veg"

"Have you got the map?"

"Here" and the pair of them studied the map intensely. "We could take the A4103 and A44 to Worcester, take the M5 all the way to West Bromwich and then head north on the M6 as far as Stoke" Hannah traced the route with a finger. "Once we get there, we swing east and head towards the Peak District. We could rest in some caves for a day or two – it might be cold, but at least it would be dry"

"And we could light a fire – thank god magical fires are smokeless" Harry mused. "Thank god I insisted the sleeping bags were thrown into the van – otherwise we'd have nowhere to sleep"

"If there isn't enough bags, I don't mind sharing with you" Hannah batted her eyes at him.

"How long… How long until Story comes back?"

"Another twenty minutes – why?"

"Well Lavender's in a drug induced sleep, Astoria is away picking fruit and veg, my girlfriend is alone with me and completely defenceless…"

"Twenty minutes?" she raised an eyebrow at him in a manner that painfully reminded him of Hermione. "Challenge accepted, Mr Potter"

#

"WHERE IS HE?" roared Malfoy as he punched Hermione in the stomach.

"I… I don't know"

"LIES!" and she was hit by some kind of torture curse.

"Why bother with the Mudblood when the little Veela has already broken?" asked a smooth sounding voice. Hermione raised her head to look at Voldemort standing at the top of the steps to the dungeons. "I admit that I might be a little rusty in some areas, but breaking the little girl was most enjoyable" and he threw Gabrielle down the ten feet onto the floor. Her clothing was torn, she was filthy and blood was caked on her legs – Hermione knew how she had been broken… Rape was terrible to any girl, but was even worse for a Veela. "I look forward to seeing the expression on your face the moment I kill your precious Harry Potter in front of your eyes. Come, Lucius, we have work to do"

#

Astoria marvelled at the amount of traffic on the roads, Hannah sat in the back checking over Lavender and Harry drove for several hours before they pulled into a service station for a short time.

"I need a piss and a fag" Harry said bluntly, "Anybody else want to stretch their legs?"

"We both do" Hannah replied. "It should be safe enough to leave Lavender on her own for a while"

"Have we got enough money to have a burger?" asked Astoria.

"No, but that is no problem" Harry fingered his wand.

"I thought stealing was wrong" Astoria told him. "At least, that what it said in that book of Hermione's"

"But is it wrong to steal if you are desperate and also very hungry?"

"I don't know" Astoria admitted, "I never read that far"

"Neither have I" Harry shrugged and secretly snuck some money out of the bank machine. "But I can't believe in an all powerful bloke with a beard"

"Albus Dumbledore"

"I think she wins" Hannah giggled. "Alright, lets say that we meet up in ten minutes before we get something to eat and drink"

"Harry? Do you think they might serve soup here?" Astoria's question was tinged with sadness.

"I think so… Is something the matter?" he asked.

"It's Daphne's birthday"

"Oh… Sweetie, why didn't you say something?" Harry gathered the girl into his arms and held her as she cried a little.

"We were really busy and I didn't want to be a problem, and I knew we had to go to Hogwarts, and I knew…"

"You should have known we would have done something to remember her by" Hannah cut the younger witch off.

"I'm sorry" she sniffed. "If nothing had happened, I would have asked to go sit by Daphne's grave for the day with a picnic – we used to do that when were younger"

"Why?"

"We used to pretend that the dead could talk to us" said Astoria, drying her eyes with a small handkerchief that Hannah passed her. "But we never had a body to bury after she died saving us" she looked down. "I blamed Luna and I never even apologised… When I die, will you bury me somewhere near a lake with trees please?"

"Honey, you're not going to die for years to come" Harry kissed her gently on the head.

"I hope so too, but if something happens and we win but I die, I want that. I used to grow up in a massive place with fields of barley, fields of gold and big lakes lined with trees. When I was scared or upset or lonely, that's where I used to run away to"

"Sounds like you loved it very much"

"Mmm… My parents used to joke that the waters ran all the way to Hogwarts" and a frown came over her pretty little face. "Hogwarts… _Hogwarts_!" she said with a quietened squeak.

"What about it?" asked Hannah.

"Harry said that going to Hogwarts might be a trap the way they we're expected… My family has a big estate a bit of a way away from Hogwarts, but the lake we have is said to be filled by the water that comes from the lake there. I could key you into the wards, get us to the lake and we could swim into Hogwarts"

"That… that might just work" Hannah admitted.

"I was thinking about using the boats, but never about swimming – why didn't I think of that?" Harry exclaimed.

"Maybe because you are so old" Astoria said, forgetting her earlier upset and pain. "But its okay" she said consolingly and patted his arm gently, "I'll look after you and feed you apricot dessert"

"Hannah?"

"Yeah?"

"Can I kill her?"

"Oh oh" and Astoria wigged out of his hold and hurried away to the toilet.

"At least she has not been tainted by the war" Harry watched as she walked down the corridor and out of sight.

"She has" his girlfriend argued "But not as much as the rest of us… She can still be a cheeky little child" she looped her arm around Harry's left. "Say, do you think they will do you a pensioner's discount?"

**A/N:**

**Hope you leave reviews in the normal manner – bonus points for those that spot the call back**

**Regards**

**Pixel**


	13. The Final Night

**The Final Night**

"_The final phase of our approach to Hogwarts took almost the rest of the time we had permitted_" Harry said to Shah.

"_Did you have time to rest_?" the witch asked.

"_Yes, but only for a few hours. Leaving Astoria with Lavender, Hannah and me went towards the lake to do some scouting work, but we found a lot of patrols. To get inside without being spotted, we'd have to swim for almost an hour – putting us at risk of running out of Gillyweed time_"

"_But you managed it somehow_"

"_Yes, but the cost we paid was far too much_"

#

"There doesn't seem to be any kind of patrols on the side of Hogwarts where the lake weeds are the thickest, but we shouldn't discount wards. Also" Harry went on as he pointed at a rough map he had drawn of the Hogwarts grounds, "There may have been an agreement with the Merpeople to work with Voldemort"

"But if we can get into the Castle, then what…?" asked Astoria.

"Our main aims should be to secure the Slytherin and Hufflepuff dorms first – they are the closest and we need a quick base to work from. After that, we sweep upwards taking each floor at a time and clear it before posting guards at all the stairways and moving upwards" Hannah said. "The main target, if we can get enough people to join us, is to take over the Hospital Wing – that way Lavender can get all of the help she needs and get things ready for the wounded and dead"

"What about me?" asked Astoria. "I want to fight as well"

"And I haven't forgotten that" said Harry with a smile. "Once we have the two dorms secured, you'll take secret passages to get to the Kitchens and find out if the elves are with us, against us or will stay out of the fight. If Dobby was anything to go by, I wouldn't want to face a pissed off bunch of house elves"

"We're not going to make it out alive?" said a voice. The three of them turned round to see Lavender standing with one hand clutching her left side and limping slowly towards them.

"Get back lying down, Lav" Hannah said, "You'll undo what we've done otherwise"

"Harry, don't be a noble idiot this time, will you? We all know that there is very little real chance of any of us surviving this attack on Hogwarts, let alone the war, but if we must die, if _we_ must die, let it be like this" and the girl drew herself straight. "Lavender Brown, reporting for duty"

"Thank you" Harry whispered – an unknown emotion rose up in him. There were but four left in their group, and of those three only Harry and Hannah could take on large groups of Death Eaters and Order members. Lavender was barely standing on her own two feet without any help and Astoria was okay taking on one or two. They'd given her training with the guns that they still had, but it was not enough training for anything like what they would have wanted.

"Four people against a potential target of hundreds of the enemy?" Hannah whistled, "That's going to be tough"

"I know, but like I said, Hans, there is little chance of us winning against them. The best that we can hope for is to free any and all prisoners, get our people out of there and evacuate them to the continent" Harry said to her.

"What about you?" asked Lavender.

"I am not going to run away and hide any more" Harry said quietly. "Hermione, if… If she is still alive, Hermione to be got out of here at all costs. On my death, all the powers of the Ministry will go to her"

"Well" Astoria shrugged her shoulders, "If you are staying, then that is what I will do too"

"When I said I was not going to run, I meant that I would go out in a blaze of glory"

"Suicide?"

"More of a rational transaction – my life for millions"

"I looked it up in that book of Hermione's" Astoria said, "And it is says that suicide is wrong"

"I know, but I don't believe in what the book says. I refuse to believe in any kind of organisation, thought or belief system that demands complete obedience without having earned something first" Harry let out a long and drawn out breath. "I plan to leave Hogwarts either alive or not at all"

"Same here" Hannah said quickly.

"Me too" Astoria agreed.

"Its what I signed on for" smirked a pain filled Lavender.

"We go in tomorrow" said Harry. "Tomorrow will be the last stand of the free forces dedicated to peace. We'd better check what potions we have, make sure the weapons are in working order and go over our armour"

# # # # #

"I never thought I would ever be the head of an army invading Hogwarts" Harry said as he sat at the mouth of the cave that overlooked a distant Hogwarts.

"Four people is not exactly an army" Hannah said as she leant back into him.

"No, but it's the best we have" Harry said. "I was thinking that, seeing as how we have a couple of explosive potions left over, we get to the ward chamber and blow it"

"Dropping all of the wards would allow us to evacuate a lot quicker" Hannah agreed. "But it would also allow the other side to gain reinforcements"

"It's a risk, but the all fucking thing is a risk" Harry said. Hannah was silent for a minute or two before sitting up and turning back to look at her boyfriend.

"Make love to me"

"What?"

"Right here and now – make love to me… If tonight is going to be our last night together, then I want to die with a smile on my face"

#

"Do you think that we could win?" asked Astoria to Lavender.

"If it was just us, I'd figure a way out of the country… With Harry, though, we might just be able to get a chance to win"

"That's not an answer"

"Best you are going to get" Lavender smirked. "Jokes aside, Story, I think that this is the last battle of the free forces one way or the other"

"Well at least we get to go out with a ba–" Astoria stopped talking, dropped the small pile of wood she collected and pulled out her wand.

"What is it?" asked Lavender as she did the same.

"Somebody in the trees" and Astoria gestured in the direction of the thickest part of the woods nearby. The two girls advanced slowly ready to fire off spells when a bush shook for a moment before the battered, bloody and bruised figure of Gabrielle came out and came to a sudden stop.

"Found you" and passed clean away.

#

"We found her whilst collecting firewood for tonight" said Lavender. "I cast a few charms on her, but she's clearly been tortured for information"

"And I'm guessing she's been raped" Harry said.

"I'm sure they would have done it anyway, but almost certainly when it was discovered she was a Veela. I've done what I can for her injuries, but her mental state is another matter altogether"

"Mmm" Harry sighed. "Look, I will watch over her and you can go and get some rest. You really shouldn't be up anyway" and Lavender nodded and limped away. "Hannah, did you detect any traces on her?"

"No, so either she was able to get rid of them herself, she had help or there never was any put on her in the first place" his girlfriend replied.

"Well it proves that, at least when she managed her escape, Hermione was still alive" Astoria said. "She must have told Gabrielle about this cave after they were taken"

"I hope so" Harry accepted her logic as valid. "Can we wake her up for a while?"

"Maybe a minute – two at the extreme"

"Do it… As terrible as it may seem, she's the best thing that could happen to us in terms of tactical knowledge"

"She's not going to be in a fit state to talk much"

"She doesn't have to be" Harry replied.

"That's wrong"

"We're supposed to win this war by any means necessary" Astoria argued. "If the information we need can be got hold of, I think Harry should go into her mind"

"But to go into the mind of somebody without permission…" Hannah shook her head. "I know we need the information, but couldn't we ask Gabby when we wake her up? She could nod or shake her head"

"That's fair enough" agreed Harry. They agreed to try and talk to her after their evening meal of steak and a few mushrooms that Astoria had found a little way from the cave mouth – though the girl protested the area smelt like a lot of sex. Harry had merely grinned whilst Hannah had gone a bright shade of red which made her boyfriend grin even more.

#

"Har… Harry?" Gabrielle's eyes fluttered open.

"Gabby, we haven't got much time. Cut a long story short, you are safe and amongst friends, but we need to look into your mind in order to get information. I can scan you mind, but I won't do it unless you give me permission"

"Oui, mon frère" Gabrielle said without hesitation.

"Okay" Harry told her. He was surprised at her calling him her brother, but wondered if it was a French thing regarding brothers in arms and she was too tired to say it fully. Clearing his mind, he looked at Gabrielle's eyes and searched her memory for every little scrap of information she knew of. After a minute, he pulled out and allowed the Veela to rest.

"Harry?" Hannah moved to his side and guised him to a chair.

"We're on" he said. "We're bloody well on. The others are alive, tortured of course, but alive. She's been raped by Voldemort himself, but because it happened a number of times she knows where he is staying. I'm changing the plan"

"To what?" Lavender feared she already knew the answer.

"We're going to take out Voldemort – he spends every night in what used to be Snape's quarters"

"And how do you propose to get near him?" asked Hannah.

"Swim in the lake, place the explosive potions on the walls of the place, retreat and detonate them. He'll apparate out of there, but the explosion and the result of the impact of water will cause him to spinch"

"Meaning that he will call upon the magic of his followers in order to stay alive – weakening them as he does so" Astoria burst into laughter. "Harry, that's genius!"

"Well thank you, Madam" Harry bowed. "Now, Gabby is very weak but has agreed to be given as many potions and spells as she can handle in order to go in with us"

"She'll die"

"I think that is very much the point" Hannah said quietly.

"I think so too… For a girl to be raped is a terrible thing indeed… But for a Veela to be – it's a testament to Gabby that she was able to keep sane until she found us" Harry told the other three. "I'll have another go at talking to her later on, but if she wants to die, then I am not going to stop her"

"_By All Necessary Means_" Hannah muttered. "If we get through this, we'll never be the same again"

"Its changed us beyond anything we could have ever imagined" Lavender said. "I used to live for gossip and fashion – now I live to see the sun rise the following day"

# # # # #

Harry was woken by a gentle shaking of his shoulders by Astoria.

"Wha… Whadya want?" he asked, rubbing his eyes and putting on his glasses.

"I want you to have sex with me"

"Okay…" Harry blinked several times. "I must have taken a knock to the head because you just woke me up and asked for sex"

"I did… Might die tomorrow, and I don't want to die a virgin" Astoria said quietly as she looked at the cave floor. "I want to know what it's like to have sex"

"Even if it was appropriate, Story, I'm with Hannah and I don't think she'd like that very much"

"BUT I DON'T WANT TO DIE!" Astoria burst into tears and buried herself into his side. "I DON'T WANT TO FUCKING DIE WITHOUT HAVING DONE IT!"

"You will live, Story, and I can promise you that"

"How?"

"Because you are wearing a Portkey – _Activate_"

"Has she gone?" asked an awake Hannah.

"Yeah" he got up, stretched his arms and legs and stamped some feeling into them.

"Where did you send her?" asked Lavender.

"Gringotts" Harry said. "She might well be the one life I am able to save in this sorry bloody mess" and he donned what remained of his armour, strapped on his pistol belt, spare bullets and his wand holster.

"Well this is the point at which you should say something totally profound and meaningful" Hannah said.

"Nothing springs to mind…" Harry replied before he watched as Gabrielle, wearing Astoria's armour, transfigured a couple of rocks into a large black banner with a white image of Harry on it.

"En avant, mes amis - rappelez-vous Potter Manor!" she cried and started walking out of the cave.

"What she said" Harry chuckled before the three of them hurried after her.

**A/N:**

**Hope you leave reviews in the normal manner – bonus points for those that spot the call back**

**Regards**

**Pixel**


	14. Infiltration and Rescue

**Infiltration and Rescue**

"_We went in under the cover of darkness and made contact with the Merpeople_"

"_Did they help you?_" asked the reporter.

"_After we made it clear the small party of four did not make up a war invasion, yes… They told us that Voldemort had placed children and other such hostages in the very lowest parts of the castle which meant our plan of blowing holes in was out of the question_" Harry said. "_However, they did show us a small tunnel which had been made many years ago for some pupils who could turn into aquatic creatures or used magical items to swim without having to walk out of the castle_" Harry paused to sip his tea before he went on. "_Then it became ever so slightly harder to work out what to do next…_"

#

"This is ever so slightly more hard to do" Hannah said as she wiped the knife in her hand on the robe of the Death Eater she had just stabbed to death.

"The main point is that we're in" Harry said to her in reply as he glanced up and down the corridor for signs of trouble. "There should be a corridor for servants from the old days just a little bit ahead – we can use that in order to avoid Death Eaters and get to Hufflepuff"

"Why my House?" his girlfriend asked.

"Apart from the fact it is the closest, its also the only House that has just one corridor running to it. If we can get in and secure Hufflepuff, we can get the latest information and then form strike groups under each of us to first secure the other Houses and free our friends. Once that's done, I shall sack Dumbledore as Headmaster using my power as Minister for Magic and then we'll clean house in a big way" he said. He looked back into the storage room to see leaning against a wall catching her breath and Gabrielle fiddling with one hand inside her robes. "Gabby, we _really_ don't have the time for _that_"

"Huh…? Oh, zis?" she jerked her hidden hand in indication, "I am removing zis bra so I doughnt break eet… Zit ees a good bra"

"Why?" asked Lavender.

"Zhow many girls can say zey haf had zecksee knickers vrought for zem by ze great Harry Potter?"

"Me" Hannah said simply.

"I thought you called him your brother?" Lavender chuckled as she stood straighter and dusted herself down.

"Oui, but ze thing about eencest zis eet ees all in ze family" and Gabrielle, despite her recent assaults and rapes, giggled as the older witch blushed heavily.

"Transforming?" Hannah turned to look at her with worry.

"Yes" Gabrielle realised her accent was slipping somewhat and took a few moments to calm herself down. "I know the basis behind it, have seen others do it, but I have never tried it for real"

"But you have transformed?" Harry glanced up and down the corridor again.

"Just once, but it took me a while to become human again" Gabrielle finished adjusting herself and took a careful hold of Astoria's wand. "Let us go"

"Harry, I just had a thought" Lavender said. "If these corridors run around the castle, would they also run to the kitchens?"

"I guess so" Harry replied, "Why do you ask?"

"Because we should use them to get to the kitchens, make contact with the elves and have them get everybody out that hasn't taken their OWLs yet… It would save massing people together for an evacuation after all"

"Good thinking, Lav" Harry praised her. "Once we make contact with the elves, we'll get the younger ones out of here – but get in touch with the teachers first. We know which are hostile or here against their will and making the best of it, so those ones we'll need help from in gathering the children together, isolating the trouble makers and getting the innocent out"

"Where are we sending the trouble makers?" Hannah enquired.

"Chamber of Secrets" Harry told her as they crept along the corridor to where Harry knew there was a small doorway hidden in the stone walls. "Only myself and a few others know where it is, its been warded to hell and back to allow only those with special tokens to get back out again and its an easy place to isolate them. The rest can go to Gringotts and" he smirked as he found the hidden door and opened it carefully, "They can keep Astoria happy"

#

"Master Harry!" Harry was swamped by elves the moment he stepped into the kitchens. He felt little tiny hands touching him as if he wasn't there or a ghost.

"_Plenty of those there_" he thought to himself as he smiled at the elves before gesturing for them to keep quiet. "I need you to get as many elves in the school as possible back here" he said.

"Have you come to rescue us?" asked one of them.

"Yes, but we'll need your help"

"How?"

"You know who all the Death Eaters and their supporters are, right? Well, we need you to be ready to get all of the ones not like that out of here below the age of 15" Harry said. "Will you be able to do that?" he added.

"Normally no, Master Harry Potter, but Headmaster be breaking all rules… So we do what you ask"

"Great – first, get all of the good teachers here… We need to talk to them quickly"

"The teachers is being locked in theirs rooms" one of the elves said.

"How are my friends being kept? Who gives them water?"

"By's House Elf"

"Right, can you get a message to them?" Harry asked and got several nods in return. "Tell them that we're here, we're coming for them and just to hold on for a little longer. Can you slip some potions into their water?"

"We can be doings that" said one elf that seemed to be the leader of them all.

"Then slip them health potions, pepper ups and bone knitting potions" the four humans handed over the potions and then looked around the room at the eager faces of the Hogwarts House Elves. "If there is a fight, I'm going to need a great service from you"

"We lives to serves" said the leader.

"Good – whats your name?"

"Earri"

"You remind me a lot of Dobby" said Harry. "I wonder what happened to him" he mused.

"Dobby… Dobby not serve any more" Earri replied.

"He's dead…? How?" Hannah caught her boyfriend as he stumbled backwards in shock.

"He be taken before the Dark One" Earri said sadly. "They torture him for Master Harry Potter's location, but Dobby not be tellings. Earri saw what happened, Master Harry Potter, and Master Harry Potter be proud of what Dobby not be sayings…"

"How did he die, Earri?" asked Lavender.

"The Dark One be killings Dobby, Mistress Lavender Brown… But that's only after Dobby be hitting Dark One with elf magic – the Dark One be badly injured before he kills Dobby. Dobby be standings his ground and be shouting '_Long Live Master Harry Potter! I die free!_' and then the Axe Man be chopping off Dobby's head"

"Harry?" Hannah noticed her boyfriend gripping his wand so tightly that she thought it might well snap.

"Don't, Hannah… Don't even try to stop me. Voldemort has killed people I didn't know" Harry growled. "And he's killed our friends… But, to me, Dobby was family and killing Dobby just made this fucking personal" and he looked at the elves. "Are you able to do what I asked?"

"I be thinkings so" Earri replied.

"Then go about it" said Harry and he watched as the elves scattered about to do their duties.

"Dobby was ze little helf, was 'e not?" asked Gabrielle.

"Yeah… One of my very best friends" Harry sipped from the drink that was pressed into his hands by a passing elf. "Bloody bugger was a right pain in the arse at times, but a good friend and helped me out a number of times – hell, he even saved my life once"

"He did?" asked Lavender.

"Draco's father tried to kill in in the corridor outside Dumbledore's office and Dobby just stepped in front of me and knocked the bastard down onto his arse!" he chuckled. "Even if we end up not winning here today, I'm going to take out a bunch of them for Dobby"

"Can we get something to eat?" asked Lavender. "We've been scratching meals together for a while now, and I'd love an actual meal"

"What can we's be servings you?" asked an elf that made an abrupt stop and turned towards her.

"A massive plate of spaghetti bolognaise – don't skimp on the meat"

"Mistress?"

"I want to eat my own body weight" Lavender then chuckled as she saw the elf trying to guess her weight. "That was a joke, my friend – I just want a huge bloody serving"

"And me" said Hannah.

"I, also" Gabrielle piped up.

"Me too" said Harry. "Oh, and bring us a couple of beers each too"

"Harry?" Lavender frowned.

"If this meal is to be our last, let's make sure that it's a feast"

#

An hour later, the four made their final checks of their equipment and turned to some of the elves.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" asked Lavender. "You could get hurt or even killed"

"House Elves live to serve, Mistress Lavender Brown, but to's exist as a slave is nots to be existings at all" one of the four said.

"Have you been talking to Hermione?" Harry chuckled. "Right, are you certain that there is nobody in the Gryffindor dorms?" and the elves all nodded. "Then take us there and be ready to do what we talked about"

"Yes, Master Harry Potter, Sir" and they took hold of the four remaining fighter's hands and elf flashed them to the Gryffindor common room. The great banners had been torn down – leaving shreds of them on their crossbars. Dried patches of blood were on the floor and a cabinet of torture tools sat above the fireplace. As the magic in the room sensed their arrival, several small lamps lit up but stayed at a low dim.

"My god…" Lavender gasped as she took in what had been her home for most of the year for just over half a decade.

"We've only got a short time" said Harry. "Go into each of the dorms, wake everybody up and get them dressed quickly. Is there anybody in this House that is a Death Eater or a supporter of them?" he asked the elves.

"No" the elves whispered at the same time.

"Right, well be ready to take as many as you can from here to Gringotts" Harry said and then turned to look around the common room. Something snapped inside him and he used waves of magic to restore the place to its former glory. All the blood vanished, the light grew much brighter, the huge banners repaired themselves and the place generally became liveable and full of life as opposed to a place of fear and death it been for such a long time. The younger students came down first and saw Harry standing there with a sword on his left hip and two pistols – one on his right hip and the other in a holster on his right chest.

"You came…" whispered a First Year. "You actually came…" she burst into tears and hugged Harry tightly. Hannah, from her position on the stairs to the boy's dorms, simply shrugged at him with a smirk. Harry simply patted the girl on the head and prised her off from his legs.

"Look, we're here to defeat Voldemort, Dumbledore and all the evils bast… All the evil people here, but the trouble is we can't have you getting in the way or you will get hurt" he told them.

"Where do we go?" asked a Fifth Year boy.

"The elves here will take everybody to Gringotts where they will be safe from harm for now. If we lose the fight, then they have instructions to get the whole lot of you out of the country to a safe place"

"Can I stay?" asked the girl who had hugged Harry.

"Sweetie, if you stay you could get hurt" he bent down to look her in the eyes.

"I'm already hurt inside" the girl replied softly. "Besides, I can run really fast!" and Harry smiled.

"She could run along the secret passages and deliver messages for us" Gabrielle said. "We'd be too busy to send messenger spells and stuff" she added, her English getting better.

"Just you" Harry relented. "You stay with me and one of the House Elves. If things look bad, they will take you away without question"

"Thank you" she hugged his legs again.

"Okay, guys, do your stuff"

"I want to stay and help you" a tired, battered and bruised boy pushed his way through the crowd.

"Colin…" Lavender shook her head. "Its dangerous enough for us to start with, in your condition its suicide"

"If I'm going to die, I want to take a bunch of the bastards with me" Colin Creevy looked at her with hollow eyes.

"We've trained for this for a year" Hannah told him and the gathered students, "But I suppose that some of you could help us in the Kitchens healing the injured – only the upper two years. The elves couldn't tell us, but does anybody know how many guards are where Hermione and the others are being held?"

"Hermione Granger is here?"

"She was captured along with most of our group" Harry said.

"TRAITOR! BLOOD TRAITOR!" a voice from the stairs to the boys's dorms roared. Harry turned round to see Ron Weasley with his wand pointing at him.

"_Me_ a traitor? I hardly think so, Weasley. Some of us care about freedom and life – not being under the foot of an evil dictator and those too cowardly to do any–"

"_Avada Kedavra_" the Killing Curse shot from Ron's wand and rushed towards Harry. Before he had time to do anything, apart from wonder if his mother's protections still held up let alone actually diving for cover, something impacted him in his hip – causing him to stumble. The girl that had wanted to stay with Harry and the group had knocked him aside and taken the killing curse in his stead. Harry was frozen in horror as Hannah, Lavender and Gabrielle drew their pistols and emptied an entire clip each into the youngest male Weasley.

"Quick! Get her onto the table!" Harry said. The girl was placed on the main table, normally used by pupils for homework and tabletop games, and Harry tore off her robes and started to do chest compressions. "No… You are not going to die!" he said. Lavender moved over and helped Harry in his work – it took several minutes for a pulse to be felt, but it was certainly there. "Well, that's one life I'm going to save here" he muttered. "Okay, girls and boys, change of plans – we're getting you out of here" and he nodded to the elves who started grabbing pupils and taking them to safety. Several of the older ones protested and were allowed to stay – made up of those from the sixth year as Harry made up the only free male member of his year in Gryffindor at that moment.

"Whats the plan?" asked Hannah as they stood around the common room.

"We're going to free the other Houses, ask for help and then free Hermione, Susan and the others" Harry said.

"Even using the secret passages" Gabrielle said, "We're going to be spotted when we get to the door of the dungeon"

"But you are forgetting the elves" said Lavender. "They could pop in and free them whilst we take care of the guards"

"I shall do that" said the French girl with a vicious look on her face. "If they haven't changed their routine, the ones who raped me will be on guard…"

#

Gabrielle looked around the corner and found the two guards on the door to the dungeon where the others were being held and tortured for information. All the time she had been growing up, she had been taught to try to keep a calmness – that her Veela abilities could change her into a human like bird and cause great damage and injury and even death. She'd never killed anybody before tonight, but she'd emptied a pistol into Ron Weasley and was now about to make her total three wizards at the very least. As she took off her clothes to avoid getting them torn, the little Veela wondered if her soul was going to be irreparably damaged. Having a last moment, she thought anout putting her clothes back on as the only male that had seen her naked was Harry – and that had taken some explaining to Hannah. Whenever she felt dirty inside of herself, she'd go to him and he'd wash her from top to toe to cleanse her soul of bad thoughts and memories. Hannah had understood and, displaying her sometimes suppressed Bi-Sexuality, took over the task of cleaning her more sensitive points. If she was going to die here, in this very corridor, at least _that_ night with the pair of them at Potter Manor would comfort her. Taking a deep breath, she calmed herself and started walking down the corridor towards the Death Eaters.

"Well look what we have here…" said one of them.

"Look like that little bint came back" said the other. "And, better still, she's all ready for us" and he moved to pin her against the stone wall and pawed at her breasts.

"Non" she gasped as he pinched a nipple hard. She twisted this way and that to make it appear as if she was struggling and the two Death Eaters laughed at her as the first one came over to push her legs apart.

"Might as well have some fun before we toss her back inside" he said.

"Non" Gabrielle said.

"Yes" and then stumbled back as she transformed into a vengeful human like bird with wings and thick feathers – her nails extending into claws.

"Non" she growled and swiped at them with her claws – making the corridor and surrounding area fill with screams and cries of pain.

To Muggles that were lucky to see a transformed Veela, they were known as Angels…

#

"What's going on?" asked Hermione. She tried to look around whilst stuck to the wall in her chains.

"Maybe some of the pupils are trying to get us out of here" Dean groaned. As a Muggleborn, he and Hermione had shared a great deal of the 'punishment' handed out to them by the Death Eaters.

"They must be tearing the poor bastards to pieces" Padma shook her head and whispered sadly. Suddenly, the sounds all ceased and there was a deathly silence before the huge oak door buckled inwards and then exploded in a small fireball and mix of tiny fragments of wood and stone along with a cloud of dust. A shadow could be seen getting clearer and clearer until it came through the smoke and revealed Harry wearing full armour and all his weapons strapped to his hip. As the prisoners all turned and twisted to gaze at him, framed by the smoke and dust cloud, a low key but high pitched trumpet call filled the room.

From that moment, until her dying day, Hermione would often wonder how the hell Harry had got Hogwarts to play the Dragonzord's summoning call from Power Rangers…

#

Once the four had gone round, released their friends and treated them as best as they could, they huddled together and discussed the plan.

"From what the elves have told me, the guards are going to be changed in ten minutes – that is going to give us enough time to get there hell out of here and into a position best suited to us fighting. Hermione… Is there any way we can get the Death Eaters into the hall at the same time as the Order?"

"Not without tripping off the wards" she said.

"Well its going to become academic in a few minutes" said Susan. "Where's Astoria?" she asked.

"With the Goblins" Harry said, and he left it at that. "Where are the guards quartered here?" he asked the elves.

"Theys be sleeping in the olds rooms" said Earri. "Most of thems be sleepings"

"Lead us through the secret corridors and take us there" Harry ordered. "We have a lot of work to do in a short time"

"There be being a better ways" said Earri. "Sometimes the wards be goings off by themselves. Death Eaters and Order members be goings to the great hall to gathering"

"So?" asked Hannah.

"They goes through the courtyard, Mistress. You could hides above them and fire downs at them"

"Earri, you just became head of planning" Harry grinned.

"I thought I was head of planning" Hermione said as she checked over Rionach for injuries.

"Sweetie, you got captured" the girl replied.

"I know… Captured by you" and they started to kiss.

"THIS NOT BEINGS THE TIMINGS!" Earri said in a shrill voice. The elf was cringing with his hands over his eyes and began humming loudly to itself. The other three, to the rest of the group's surprise, simply put their hands in their uniform pockets and whistled a slightly off key version of _'The Stripper_'. Harry made a note to find out who, assuming they were not an enemy, who taught them this and reward them handsomely for giving him and the others a laugh.

"If we can tear you two away from tearing _clothes_ off, we need to get to the upper parts of the courtyard before the wards are tripped and they come rushing through" Hannah said.

"Silencing charms on guns" Luna suggested. "That way they will not hear the sound"

"That should work" agreed Padma.

"Even if we don't get all of them, we'll be able to take out most or all of them passing below us" and Harry cocked his pistol and swung round in the half second needed for a popping noise to sound behind him to fully register in his mind.

"Master Harry Potter, Sir, I be askings to join yous"

"You?"

"Other elves be helpings, but I's not be having works to do… I's be wanting to fight alongside Master Harry Potter, Sir, and his group"

"There's another reason" said Parvati, softly.

"Dobby beings my bestest friend. He's being my naughty times… I's be wanting revenge"

"You might be stopping servings" Earri burst. "Bad witches and wizards be havings much powerfuls magic thens house elfs… Yous could be dyings" and the elf, a female one, reached into her magically expanded waistband and pulled out two sharp looking kitchen knives before crossing her arms to take on a pose much akin to an ancient warrior with scimitars - fixing Earri with a look that was both full of ice and also of fire.

"Winky be knowings"

**A/N:**

**#RIPDobbyTheHouseElf**

**I figured that, in this fic at least, Dobby deserved a good way to die! I know, in advance of this chapter being released, that some people may very well have an issue with Harry's brief breakdown, but Harry has, up to now, not lost a member of anybody close to him apart from Daphne - so to lose a person he thinks of as family tips him over for a few seconds.**

**Also, little Gabby gets a moment of her own when getting rid of the guards. Apart from that, at least a long standing question about her and Harry has been somewhat answered - I just don't know if people would like to see that as a flashback or not.**

**Right then... Reviews please along with your comments and I will try to get a reply as soon as i can**

**Regards**

**Pixel**


	15. The Final Battle – Last Stand

**The Final Battle – Last Stand**

"_The start of it would, we thought, be easy... But the escape of Gabby was a surprise and they had increased their security. We took the extra guards out, hid their bodies and then got onto the roofs surrounding the main courtyard. Winky took on the suicide mission to get the alarm sent out and I never saw a braver elf go to die before or since…_"

"_But you won_"

"_Well we wouldn't be having this conversation otherwise_" Harry growled, allowing some of his power to manifest itself.

#

"We shoot the leaders that we see, then people in support roles and then everybody else" Harry said. "Shoot to kill – show no mercy"

"No problem with that" said Hermione and adjusted her aim with the rifle she held. After a few moments, they heard a massed amount of footsteps and they saw the first few Death Eaters enter the courtyard – heading to the other side and Voldemort and Dumbledore.

"Wait for it… Wait for it… FIRE!" Harry shouted the last word and the air was torn with the sound of gunfire as they all picked their targets and shot. Screams, screeches and shouts of pain came from the massed huddle as the bullets struck them. A couple of spells attempted to return fire, but they did very little to combat Harry's group.

"Well, he's going to know that we're here" Seamus grinned.

"You think?" Dean grinned as he changed his clip for a fresh one. After a few seconds, Harry jumped over the edge and landed in the courtyard – followed by Gabrielle and Hannah. They moved quickly through the bodies and shot anybody who still clung to life – Gabrielle seemingly taking great pleasure in emptying an entire clip into one wizard. After a few moments, the rest of them gathered round with flushed looks and excitement in their eyes.

"Orders?" asked Susan.

"Engage the enemy" said Harry. There was a determined look amongst themselves as they reloaded whilst at the run – destroying the great doors with a collection of twenty combined blasting charms. Once through, they split into groups and headed off in different directions so they could encircle Voldemort, Dumbledore and anybody else who resisted them. Harry personally led a group consisting of Hannah, Gabrielle, Susan, Lavender and a Gryffindor fifth year down to the dungeons where they went room by room and cleared everything before tossing in an explosive potion to make sure of it. Once they were done, they went back to the ground floor where they could hear the distant sounds of weapons and spells being used against each other.

"Where should we go?" Susan called as she scanned the area for targets.

"The map says there's a few Death Eaters near the library" Hannah replied. "If we go round the edges of the fighting, we can pin them between us and Hermione's group" she indicated on the map Harry held out.

"You are assuming that Lupin hasn't made another map" Gabrielle said.

"It needed four people to make, so I think it very unlikely" Harry said quietly.

"What ma–" began the fifth year. He stopped talking when a cutting spell took his head clean off his shoulders.

"Die, blood traitors and mudbloods!" cried a group of Death Eaters.

"Fuck off!" Susan shouted back as she opened fire. For the next couple of minutes, the two sides exchanged fire until the last Death Eater was dead. The short exchange had done great harm to the liberators with Hannah sporting a broken right arm and cut legs, Susan had huge cuts all over her body and Gabrielle had sustained a shattered right leg as well as small to serious injuries.

"Get them all to treatment" Harry said to Lavender – the only one to have escaped serious trouble. He was hissing from the pain of what he guessed were a couple of broken ribs, a shattered left wrist and many cuts and scrapes.

"Non!" Gabrielle protested. "Mon Dieu! Please, Harry… Do not zend mee avay"

"Gabby, you have to stay alive… For the same reason that I sent Astoria away" Harry whispered, kissing Hannah and the little Veela on their foreheads. After calling for an elf, Lavender took a look at Harry.

"I'll be back for you" she said.

"Lav, there's no point" and, before she could retort, the Hogwarts elf took her and the injured away. Harry stared at the empty space, at the bodies that surrounded him and then reached into his tattered clothes for a potion – giving him energy and strength to finish the job he had started out to do. He took the last clip for his pistol, loaded it and then put it in his holster to withdraw his wand in exchange. As he started the lonely and painful limp towards his final battle, Harry regretted sending them away. He countered this by arguing they were better off not knowing what he was going to do in a moment and at least they would survive.

#

"_I fully expected to end up blowing Hogwarts up with us inside if that's what it took to stop the Death Eaters and the Order once and for all… By now we were down to around three dozen people and most of us had gathered for a massed suicide charge. What I didn't know at the time was that Lavender, bless her soul, was making a few changes at Gringotts and calling out all of those that owed me a debt of gratitude or honour…_"

"_Miss Potter_?" asked the reporter.

"_Aye, but she still went by Brown back then. A lot of people used to underestimate her power and strength of will and character_" Harry shook his head and swilled his fresh drink around for several seconds before slamming it down his throat in one go. "_I wasn't there, of course, but I was told she made _quite_ the impression at the bank_"

#

"Another lot?"

"The human girl did suggest there would be lots more to come"

"Hmm"

"You do not approve?"

"No"

"I hear you are in charge here" a human girl's voice made the two Goblins turn to see a blood soaked Lavender Brown with pistol holstered but uncovered, short sword strapped to her, wearing torn Hogwarts robes under armour and a dangerous look in her eyes.

"I am Ragnock – leader of Gringotts" said the Goblin that was disapproving.

"I need a company of your Goblins ready in a minute to go back with me to Hogwarts"

"It is bad enough that we are skirting our neutrality by taking in your wounded, but to break that with the Dark Lord and engage him in battle…?" Ragnock shock his head. "I am sorry, but I can not help you"

"You know you owe Harry Potter a great debt – a debt that can never be truly repaid?" Lavender growled.

"Do not remind me of what I know, foolish human…"

"Do you know where these dead, dying and injured are coming from? Do you know that we're throwing our last efforts into this because we can no longer afford to run all the time?"

"The first one to come here told me as much. However, why should I care about something that is between Potter and the Dark Lord? We've signed a treaty that will keep him out of our business if we stay out of his"

"And you honestly expect him to keep his word?" Lavender laughed in disbelief.

"He keeps his word better than most of your kind" Ragnock watched as Lavender withdrew his pistol, cocked it and aimed it squarely between his eyes.

"You wouldn't dare" he smirked

"I give you one last chance – give me what I need"

"No"

_**BANG**_

The bullet echoed loudly in the suddenly silent huge main floor as it knocked the Goblin off his feet and flung him to the floor – dead before he knew what hit him. Goblins appeared from all over and charged towards Lavender but were stopped by the sound of weapons being drawn and made ready.

"You" Lavender turned her aim, not paying any heed or attention to the angry Goblin warriors that saw their leader dead in a pool of his own blood, "Who are you?"

"I am Swordsure – Vice Leader of Gringotts"

"You just got promoted" Lavender chambered another round. "Will you give me what I want?"

"After that…?" Swordsure gestured at the body at his feet. "Never"

_**BANG**_

In an instant, another Goblin was lying dead at her feet. She was about to deal with a hundred angry Goblin warriors wanting her head on a pike when a voice shouted for them to stand down.

"I am Griphook" said a suited Goblin with blood on his hands.

"Will you give me what I want?" Lavender repeated her question as she calmly chambered another round.

"We do not have all that many" Griphook said. "We can afford to give you a half dozen or so" and Griphook found himself pinned to the wall, his feet well off the floor, and Lavender's pistol jammed under his chin.

"I want a hundred… Give me a hundred or I will declare the Ministry – Goblin treaty to be at an end" Lavender said.

"I doubt you have the authority"

"Mr Glock says otherwise"

"And who" sneered Griphook, "Is Mr Glock?"

_**BANG**_

"That was Mr Glock" Lavender let the dead Goblin drop to the floor and faced the warriors who were penned together by an angry group of people holding wands and guns. "I will kill every last one of you until I get what I want"

"A… A hundred might be a bit impossible to get on short notice" one Goblin raised his hand. "But would seventy do for now?" he asked.

"You – whats your name?"

"Pikeshaft"

"Pikeshaft, congratulations on becoming the new Leader of Gringotts bank"

#

"Harry!" Hermione gave him covering fire as he limped towards them. "Where are the others?"

"That fifth year is dead and Lavender took the others to the Goblins" Harry fired a couple of blasting spells in the direction of some Death Eaters and was rewarded with two going down and a few more being injured. "I told her not to bother coming back"

"Back up plan?" Hermione nodded sadly.

"Yeah… If it comes to it. Now, have we got them pinned in?"

"I think so" Padma said quickly. "They might have escaped using the service corridor around the back of the hall, but we had a couple of people watching it in case"

"Right" Harry nodded firmly. "We're going to go in through the main doors to the Great Hall – take them by surprise" he looked around. "Say, Mione, where's your girlfriend?"

"She lost an arm and I sent her away"

"I found it again" Rionach's voice sounded almost cheerful as she fired spell after spell to get to the one she loved.

"What are you doing here?" Hermione asked.

"They reattached my arm using a quick spell for now – get it sorted out later" the redhead replied. "Besides, fighting turns me on and I'm _very_ horny"

"We don't have time for a quick screw" Harry shook his head as he killed two more Death Eaters and collapsed part of the ceiling above a few other to bury them under stone.

"What about a quick finger fuck?" Hermione blushed as she said the words.

"We've got to push these bastards out of the way" shrugged Parvati.

"Fine…" Harry sighed. "Get it over with" and the two girls ran into a nearby storeroom. "Oi!"

"What?" Hermione's head popped out the door again.

"I wanted to watch!"

#

"This…? This is all that you can muster?"

"Most of our warriors are very old and mainly dress in their items because of ceremonial occasions and duties" Pikeshaft said.

"I was promised seventy" Lavender sighed as she unholstered her pistol. Pikeshaft looked at her actions, calculated his remaining time and came up with an idea.

"I could close the bank and get the tellers to fill out the numbers"

"You have two minutes" Lavender said. "Okay people" she said to the people that had been patched up enough to return to fighting, "We're going back and we're going to give Harry everything we can. He has done nothing but fight for you all and has sacrificed so much over the years, suffered humiliation after humiliation, punch after punch and he's ready to end it all to save you"

"Wherever you are going" said a young voice as its owner pushed through the crowd, "I am going with you" and Astoria Greengrass faced down Lavender dressed in a size fitting version of Goblin armour with a sword attached to a thick leather belt and a shield strapped to her back.

#

"Has any of the bastards managed to make it out into the main staircase?" Harry asked. "I know they were pushing hard there"

"I can't say for certain, not being there myself, but the word is they haven't" Natalie said. She'd suffered greatly during the her period of captivity but had refused to be evacuated with the rest of the school.

"Once we smash through these doors, we're not coming out again unless we win" Harry said. "If anybody wants to leave, the elves can take you away" and he would have added more but he was stopped by the sound of metal marching in step and he turned to see a squadron of Goblins in full armour with Lavender and Astoria at their head. Following close behind them was a small troop of Centaurs with arrows already in their bows, a couple of the school's ghosts and what looked to be three Merfolk in floating bubbles of water with their tridents poking out.

"I brought some friends" Lavender shrugged.

#

"_The girl had gone round every person that owed me greatly, called them out on their cowardace, summoned their debt to me on my behalf and mustered almost two hundred persons of all species and states of living. My thought at the time was if this was going to be the doom of our time, then it would be one hell of a final fight!_"

#

"Why?" Harry managed to get out.

"We Goblins failed in our duty to help you in times of need. An alliance once existed between our two peoples – let us win this fight and rebuild it again but this time in friendship" Pikeshaft said.

"The stars foretold that we would help you, Harry Potter" Firenze cantered forward a few steps. "Unlike most of your kind, you have treated us with respect and with dignity in our meetings" and he glanced at Lavender. "Your friend's weapon was very convincing too" he added with a rumbling chuckle.

"We may not be able to do anything physically" the Bloody Baron said sadly, "But there have been too many new ghosts created from the souls of those killed for sport and for fun. We ghosts have decided that we shall go in first and cause a distraction. Some of may be banished to the Great Beyond, but we are prepared for that eventuality"

"I guess you want to fight too" Harry looked at the Merfolk.

"Our group wanted to come, but we also had to protect our lands…" the leader of the three smiled at Harry's surprised look as she poked her head out of the bubble of water. "From our dealings with the one you call Dumbledore, a few of us have learnt to speak your tongue. He brought shame upon us for holding people against their will during your competition – we fight because it is right to do so and to wipe the shame of our tribe"

"It would be a great honour to fight by your side, Madam" Firenze said and bowed low.

"As it would be for me by yours, Master Centaur" and the Merwoman brought her head back inside the bubble.

"Right, when we go through there, we do not stop until we win or are dead" Harry said to the assembled group. For the first time since their attack started, he felt they might have a chance of winning. "Attack without mercy anybody inside except for three people – one is our spy and the other two are Dumbledore and Voldemort"

"How will we know this spy?" asked a Goblin.

"Because he will be the only male wearing pink hair… Apart from them three, anything else is a legitimate target except for any children. However, if they decide to attack you, you may return fire and take them out" Harry gripped his wand tightly and looked at them all. "Good luck, everybody" and then he nodded to the Bloody Baron.

"Ghosts!" he called, puffing out his silvery chest, "Ghosts, to me!" and he led them through the doors like a speeding fog. Apart from the sounds of distant fighting in other parts of the castle, there was only silence as they heard confusion from people inside at the sudden appearance of the castle's ghosts. Dean loaded a rocket into the launcher and aimed it at the doors.

"Fire in the hole!" he called out needlessly and fired the projectile – having it detonate upon impact with the doors to the Great Hall and causing smoke and debris to go flying everywhere.

"CHARGE!" Harry yelled.

"CHARGE!" the others yelled as they followed him into the maelstrom of fire, smoke and debris as the last act began.

#

"_We took them by surprise at first – taking down Death Eaters and Order members alike. However, they soon got their wits about them and organised a counter attack which took its toll. I saw people I had been to school with, had lessons with, and shared adventures with cut down like sheets of tissue paper. Firenze and his people galloped around the hall firing arrows and then moving to avoid fire, but they fell quickly. The Merfolk did as well, but the leader died well… if there _is_ such a thing. Her trident was ripped from her hands, turned round and used to stab her in the heart. She stayed with it long enough to give out a defiant wail of fury and war before charging at her attacker and ramming the handle through them – taking him and two order members with her. The Goblins did well with their magical swords and shields, helping to protect witches and wizards as they exchanged spell fire, but they too took a heavy loss in life_"

#

Harry needed to rest, but knew deep down he could not do so. Taking a moment to take another pepper up potion, putting his levels at a dangerous rate, he pushed on attacking anyone and anything that came within range of his wand and was not with him. The smells of the insides of dead bodies and the smoke from small fires and smouldering materials assaulted his nose and stung at his eyes. The sounds of fighting filled Harry's eyes and confused him so much that he had to resort to what he could see. This, too, failed when his glasses were smashed and he was thrown heavily into a stone wall.

"Potter!" Harry struggled to stand up and blink away the blurred and smoke obscured image of a familiar wizard coming towards him.

"TRAITOR!" Harry roared as he realised it was Lupin.

"Am I?" Lupin asked. "All the time I was friends with Sirius, James and Lily, I was really working for Dumbledore. He showed me that Muggles and Muggle Born needed to be controlled, made to serve us in any way pending a final solution" and the last part sent a shiver down Harry's spine. Talking to some of the Jewish students over the years, and from what he learnt at primary school and books Hermione would get for him, he knew very well what happened the last time a 'final solution' was proposed.

"You betrayed my parents and Sirius – you deserve to die" Harry put on his spare pair of glasses and was able to see the man he had once given so much respect for.

"Your father and Sirius died like cowards. Your mother, on the other hand, put up a fight before she died. You know that Voldemort allowed some of us to enjoy her before we killed her? By the time I had finished with her, she seemed to enjoy it because she moaned like a whore as I took her again and again!" Lupin laughed as Harry's rage reached levels previously seen in Vernon Dursley.

"_CRUCIO!_" he screamed and Lupin batted the spell out of the way.

"You have to do better than that, you brat" and Lupin hit him with a _Crucio_ of his own. Harry's knees threatened to buckle under the amount of pain he was in, but he managed to raise his pistol and shoot Lupin's wand clean through.

"My turn…!" he growled. "_Crucio. Sepentsortia. Crucio_" Harry chained the spells together and took a great amount of pleasure in watching Lupin fall to the floor in agony. Charging over with a crazed yell, he pummelled the older wizard with his fists and then grabbed his head. "Remus Lupin, I judge you now and forever more to be a traitor to all magical kind" and, drawing on all of his inner rage, pain, hurt and power, Harry twisted the bloody head of Lupin to the left so hard it not only snapped his neck but tore it off his shoulders.

"I do wish you had not done that" said a calm voice behind him. "He was one of my best people"

"Don't worry, Dumbledore" Harry turned and raised his wand to face his former Headmaster, "You'll be joining him in death"

"Death is the only adventure you have left" and they fired spells at each other and their wands connected. Despite the battle going on around them, nothing mattered as the two powerful wizards clashed with spell after spell. Dumbledore's advantage of knowing more spells than Harry was countered by the teen's raw power. Time seemed to stand still as they went at it tooth and nail before a lucky stray shot hit Dumbledore in the back and pushed him to his knees. He panted heavily, taking in great amounts of air as Harry limped the ten feet to where the elderly wizard knelt – seemingly defeated.

"You arranged for the deaths of my parents, of hundreds of innocent men, women and children to satisfy your needs and sick desires, kidnapped, raped, tortured and you hurt and killed those I loved the most" Harry raised his wand and pointed it at Dumbledore's forehead.

"Wait…! I can bring back your parents if you let me live. Let me live, and we can bring back your parents and rule together the entire planet" and Harry hesitated at the supposed offer.

_**RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT**_

Dumbledore jerked like a puppet on a string as machinegun fire slammed into him. He fell face forwards and Harry watched him go before looking up to see Gabrielle Delacour with a pair of machine guns – wedged between her arms and hips. She had transformed into a partial angel form, was covered in bumps and bruises, bore some nasty looking wounds, her armour was dented and buckled with some puncture holes, her clothes were torn, her more than ample chest was covered only by a bra and she was sweating and covered in the blood of her enemies - one of the most breathtaking sights he had ever seen

_**RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT**_

"Just to make sure" she smirked. "Voldemort's trying to get past all of the wards and security spells and escape"

"He's going to make it?"

"Nope" Gabrielle smiled. "You see, the Goblins brought something else..."

#

"They have a dragon… Well why the hell _not_?" groaned Voldemort.

#

"This bastard is tough" Harry said. It had taken several guns, a couple of blasting spells and a degree of luck before the Troll had been taken down.

"And that was our last bit of ammo" said Lavender as she tossed a grenade that destroyed the head.

"He is heading this way" Gabrielle said, pointing towards the Quidditch pitch.

"How do you know?" asked Padma.

"He has taken other Veela" the younger witch replied. "Their magic is on them - I can sense it"

"Gabby, what do you mean he took other Veela? Did he... Did he touch you?"

"Many times, but this is hotter time to talk of such things... THERE HE IS!" she pointed to where a lone cloaked figure was running for the edge of the forest.

"He must have got past the dragons - we'll never get the coward"

"Want to bet?" Harry grinned as he poured all of his strength and power into one more spell. As he did so, felt hands cover his own as if to add more power. "_Accio_ _Tom Riddle_!" he shouted. At first, nothing seemed to happen but then Voldemort seemed to fold over and then rush towards them backwards. Harry looked around at his friends and people that had caught up to them, pointed and said two simple words. "Open fire" and a fusillade of gunfire, spells and arrows from Firenze all hit their mark and Voldemort lay dying in the grass of Hogwarts's fields. They watched as the Dark Lord lay as all of his blood spilled out, they watched as Harry willed the Sword of Gryffindor to appear and walked over to the figure, watched as he spat at the previously feared man and then watched as he pushed the sword so far into him it came out the other end. There was an eerie rattle as the breath finally left his body before it twitched once and then remained still forever more.

"Is that it?" asked Lavender.

"That's it" Harry confirmed.

"Good" muttered the girl, "I just didn't want to die before he did" and she fell to the ground by his feet.

**A/N:**

**I know, a cliffie, but I'm known for it...**

**Regards**

**Pixel**


	16. Aftermath and Skirmishes

**Aftermath and Skirmishes**

"_We lost a lot of good people in the end – students, teachers, members of the public_" Harry shook his head as if he were still there.

"_I've seen the numbers_" Shah said to him quietly.

"_Numbers are facts – just a small piece of information. What they can't, and never _can_ tell you are the stories of how they died. It also doesn't tell you the situation afterwards…_"

#

"What is our situation?" Harry asked as he walked in to the Hospital Wing.

"We lost a lot of people" replied Hermione. "Last time I saw a count, it was over a hundred and fifty people. The magical creatures took their own dead and wounded with them for treatment or disposal" and Harry took a moment to examine her. His oldest female friend was covered in small cuts, bruises and a couple of bandages holding potion soaked pads in place.

"You able to work?" he asked softly.

"For now… Rionach is getting a bit of sleep right now – effects of the potion she had given to her made that much more hornier" Hermione blushed and giggled. "What is going on round the castle? I keep hearing gunshots from time to time"

"I've got squads going round the castle, sealing off each floor and taking out the last pockets of resistance. In other news, ICW are ordering me to surrender the country to their control so they can run it – seems that some of their members do not like the thought of us being more open to magical creatures"

"What did you say?"

"Balls"

"An original thought… You think they might try to invade? After all, the wards you put up are down now"

"If they do, we'll take them down without mercy" Harry replied. "We'll have to reopen the Ministry at some point, but we're in no state to do that right now, so we'll be running things from here. Can you find the twins and get them to come up with a plan to mount a guard over the castle and grounds?"

"Why?"

"A lot of Voldemort's people would not be marked so they could avoid detection"

"Ah… Well Padma certainly can do it"

"And Parvati?" to which Hermione hesitated and looked up from the pile of parchment and paper. "Fuck… How?"

"Three blasting spells to the body and a cutting charm to the head" and Hermione shook her head sadly. "We're going to lose a few more, I think"

"Who?"

"Dean, Susan and Natalie for certain – maybe Seamus and Luna. The problem is that, even with people helping as much as possible, there are just not enough Healers to go around"

"Maybe… Maybe there is" Harry said slowly and carefully as a plan formed in his mind.

"Huh?"

"The Room of Requirement – all we have to do is ask for it to make St Mungos with everything and everyone"

"Will that work?" Hermione frowned.

"Better to try and it does then to find out it does and not try" Harry shrugged. "I'll get it organised if you tell Pomfrey" and Hermione nodded and left her paperwork to tell the School Nurse. "Dobb–" Harry cursed as he remembered his friend was dead. "I need an elf" and one popped into view before him.

"What can Dunker be doings for the Great Harry Potter Sir?"

"Need you to take me to the seventh floor where the Come and Go Room is… We've got some work to do" and Dunker nodded, smiled sadly and transported them to the upper parts of the castle.

#

It was early hours of the morning before Harry had a chance to get with Hannah. The pair had found their way to the Hufflepuff dorms and were laying on Hannah's old bed together – just taking the time to be together as Harry and Hannah.

"I'm frightened" Hannah whispered.

"Because you nearly lost me?" Harry held her close to him.

"That… But also at the thought of losing so many people I knew – who might be next?"

"I wish I could make it all better, Hannah, but this was our only option to win. At least we managed to save most of our friends"

"Most is not good enough"

"I know" Harry kissed the top of her head softly. "At least we were able to save Susan and Natalie outright. Last I heard, Pomfrey had put the others into a living death in order to save their lives. God alone knows what I plan to do now"

"What do you mean?" the Hufflepuff snuggled into her Gryffindor boyfriend.

"I didn't actually have a plan to survive this. You know, I could really do with a drink about now" Harry sighed and put his wand down on the bedside table. Hannah blinked as she knew he'd not put it down since the start of the attack on Hogwarts – and couldn't help but wonder if he'd ever find peace. The pair continued to lay in silence before Hannah realised that Harry had not said anything for a while. She moved her head up a little to see Harry's eyes closed and his breathing calm and measured as he slept away the pains and worries of the country.

#

The pair awoke to find an elf tugging at Hannah's leg.

"Mistress Hannah!" it squeaked. "Master Harry!"

"Wha…?" Harry's hand twitched for his wand.

"Mistress Hermione asked me to be tellings you that theres beings some people from big wizard council"

"Where?" Harry growled as he reached for his boots.

"Theys be arresting peoples in Great Hall and Hospital Wing"

"Round up the troops, Earri, and have them repel boarders"

"Earri is being sorry, but Earri not be knowing this"

"Just get everybody together and have them keep the ICW people contained" Hannah said as she slipped on her scuffed combat boots.

"Earri be doings this" and the elf popped away.

"I told them to stay away, but this means war" Harry pulled on his battered armour and hoped it would still work well.

"Why try to take over after we've won?"

"ICW is controlled by Purebloods, Hannah – bet you anything they couldn't stand to see their system disrupted so badly"

"Lets finish this – one last battle" Hannah reached out and tenderly stroked her boyfriend's cheek. "Once this is all over, I'm going to show you love and compassion"

"Just the compassion" Harry said.

"Why not love?"

"You did that last night" her boyfriend chuckled and then frowned.

"Whats wrong?"

"Last night…"

"What about it?"

"Where the hell _did_ you get the tin of alphabetti spaghetti?"

#

"Once we have secured the Muggleborns, search for Potter – we must take him alive" the witch in charge of the commando party from the ICW said. Most of her group covered the survivors of the recent battle with their wands – threatening to kill anybody who tried to attack them. "Once we have him, we can install a pureblood ministry again"

"Like fuck…"

"Potter"

"That's what it says on my birth certificate" Harry walked with Hannah by his side and all his weapons on full display. "As Minister of Magic for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, I order you to put up your wands and surrender to my Aurors. You are hereby charged with being an illegal and armed force that has landed on these shores – surrender or be fired upon"

"With what? My Hit Wizards and ICW Aurors have your people under control and guard… You have no Aurors at all… No Ministry" the witch looked at Harry. "Come with us now, and we will spare your people from death"

"I will give you one last warning – surrender or be killed"

"You are just a brat and wouldn't dare to kill a Pureblood li–" the witch was cut off as Harry and Hannah raised their guns and each fired three times into her chest – killing her almost instantly. The resulting firefight lasted seconds as Harry and Hannah danced a dance of death – dodging spells as they aimed and fired their pistols. At the end of it, the pair stood over the bodies of their enemies without a scratch on them.

"Get rid of them" Harry said. "Where are the others?" he added.

"Hospital Wing" Hermione said as she pushed her way through to the front.

"Right, do we have any Aurors here?" Harry looked around and two people raised their hands. "Okay, you two stand guard on the doors here and let nobody in here without taking their wand and searching them. If you have any doubts, stun and bind them" and the two nodded and moved towards the huge doors that had been replaced after the battle.

"What are we going to do with the others?" asked Hermione as she limped along with Harry and Hannah.

"Tell them what's happened, give them a chance to surrender and then take them out if they don't comply" he shrugged.

"Let's hope they haven't done anything to people in the Hospital Wing" Hannah said. "I hate to think what would happen there with all the injured"

"Well I got the impression they were just arresting people, but I know what you mean" Hermione said. "I thought this war was over"

"The war is over" Harry's voice was heavy and sad, "But the battles will always be here. I've decided that we've either to go on the offencive and take out the ICW or just withdraw from it"

"That's rash"

"Maybe, but look at it from our point of view… We asked for help against Voldemort and yet they either refused or openly supported him" Harry shrugged. "Why should we stick around in a group of Pureblood elitists?"

"The Spanish Ambassador to them is a Muggleborn" Hermione pointed out.

"But everybody really knows he's forced to do the bidding of Purebloods" Hannah said as they rounded the corner and prepared themselves for possible fighting. Three golden robed wizards stood guard over the doors to the Hospital Wing and the trio could smell the stench of the dead and dying even over the fresh air charms that had been cast so many times the very air tingled with magic.

"My name is Hermione Granger, and I am the Acting Head of the Department for Magical Law Enforcement… You are ordered to surrender your wands and yourselves to custody"

"We are the ICW… We do not surrender to Mudbloods" said one of them.

"What about to me?" Harry stepped forward. "I am Harry Potter – Minister For Magic. I order you to comply with Miss Granger's demands or else you will be fired upon and killed"

"We're here to take over the country until an ICW approved government can be put into place" said another of the three.

"This is your last warning" Harry said. He pulled out two wands and held them up so they could look at them. "These are the wands of Albus Dumbledore and Tom Riddle – do you want to go up against the person that killed them and won their wands in combat? Don't bother calling for help from your friends in the hall – we killed them"

"A likely story"

"To hell with this… Tell me, do any of you have children?" Hannah asked and the three shook their heads. "Good" and she fired three times and killed all of them outright with bullets between their eyes. "Then I orphan nobody"

"It's a good thing" Harry said as he watched the bodies fold and collapse to the floor, "That I plan to be completely faithful to you" and Hannah saw him thinking hard.

"What?" she asked.

"I was thinking that if the ICW thinks it can just walk in here without any thought to us and try to take over, we've got three options – find out if this was a rogue element, withdraw from the ICW or we go and take over the place ourselves"

"We've done so much fighting" Hermione said, "I think its best that we just leave the ICW and go our own way"

"Right – we'll do that" Harry shrugged. "Now, lets go and see if anybody was bothered by those idiots"

#

That evening, a few people had been sent out to find members of the press and bring them back to Hogwarts where the damage remained as a testament to the sacrifices made to regain freedom and peace in the land…

"Good evening" Harry stood behind the one remaining part of the staff table that had not been destroyed in the fighting. He changed back into the dried blood stained and torn robes as if to underline the point he was about to make. On both sides sat his friends – those capable of attending this announcement. "For those of you that have never heard my voice, my name is Harry Potter. For the last several months, my friends and I have been fighting to take on and defeat the forces of Lord Voldemort and Dark Lord Dumbledore. Last night, we carried out a small strike to insert the last of our forces into the castle as a last ditch effort. After freeing our people being held, we took control of the Houses and evacuated everybody too young, too sick or who did not want to fight. We engaged in battle with the forces led by Voldemort and Dumbledore, suffering heavy losses, but we managed to win the day. Earlier this morning, members of the International Confederation of Wizards came in an attempt to take over and reinstall a Pureblood biased government. This was put down within minutes and all members of the invasion team were executed without mercy" Harry paused to take a sip of water on the broken table's top. "By the ancient laws and powers of Magic, after the Ministry was taken over, I was chosen to be the next Minister of legal means. Therefore, acting as such, I make the following announcements which will take effect immediately" he paused again to study the hawkish faces of the few members of the press able to attend. "I am withdrawing our ambassadors to the ICW until such time as can be decided by myself and my advisors. Next, I call upon all surviving Aurors, including those in hiding, to come to Hogwarts so that we might reconstitute the force... A curfew is in place from half past eight until eight thirty the following morning with Aurors authorised to stun anybody without question if found out without good cause – this will be until further notice. Until such time as can be decided, the seat of power will be Hogwarts. Finally, St Mungos places top priority on those injured in the battle - so please do not go to them unless you are very badly ill. I'll now take a few questions"

"Do you have any numbers of the people injured and dead?" one reporter asked.

"We are not yet able to determine the total numbers lost, but it will be high" Harry said. "My main aim is to identify those killed and inform their families were possible"

"Did you take prisoners and, if so, what is to happen to them?" asked a wizard in garish robes that reminded him of Luna's father.

"We took a number of prisoners. It is my intention to question them with truth serum to discover what each person did. If their crimes are found to be high, they will be executed and their estates and property taken to be sold off and the monies raised split between those that need it"

"Is that legal?" asked a well known witch from the _Prophet_.

"Most of you here were nothing but cowards who either hid or supported Voldemort and Dumbledore" Pikeshaft spoke up from his place. "Would you now try to deny people their rightful compensation? I know well of you in particular, Rita Skeeter, and i can well imagine what you will be writing about this! Yes, this is completely legal as Harry is the Minister and I am the head of Gringotts Bank"

"Sir, why did you call the Minister by his first name?" asked another reporter – this time for a wireless station.

"Because I think of him as a friend... While it is true it was for but a few seconds, we battled terrible evil side by side. ANY Human who does so is my friend. Also, his friend, Miss Brown, has a persuasive method. For the record, the Bank will undertake a complete review of all transactions made during the period of terror and, where possible, have everything paid back to the original owner with compensation added. We made an error – it shall not be made again"

"When you had the opportunity, why did you not simply leave?" asked a wizard.

"Because, when all hope seemed lost and the majority of the public seemed to support the killing and torture of Muggle Borns, there where still good men and women willing to do their duty and die for the cause of freedom. I am going to make sure that this never happens again"

"Do you imagine the public will allow you and your group to simply take over the Ministry?" sneered Skeeter.

"I don't care what they think – I am staying put until things can be sorted out, laws changed for the better and then I will call for elections. I have already decided that I will not stand for such an election" Harry said.

"That is not acceptable! In fact, I challenge it" Skeeter cried out.

"Oh, a duel… Are you sure that you want to do this after I have just took this place?" Harry raised an eyebrow.

"A half-blood fool like you should never be in charge… You are ours for the using! Of course I challenge you to a duel – at once"

"Okay" Harry shrugged. In one swift movement, he drew the sword of Gryffindor and, after testing its weight, tossed it at her. Everybody in the hall watched as it spun end on end towards Skeeter – ripping through her chest and sending her flying into the wall with the point digging into the stone and pinning her there. "_Accio_" Harry muttered and the sword came back to his hand. "Next question?" he asked with a cocky grin.

"I have one?"

"Yes?" Harry turned to look at the young witch who suddenly seemed terrified of Harry doing the same to her as he had done to Skeeter.

"What is your favourite Ice Cream?"

#

"I have an update on how many are dead" Padma said. She was keeping herself busy to not feel that much pain from the death of her sister. There would be time to grieve for her loss at a later time – she had a job to do.

"Just tell me" Harry sighed. He was sat in the staff room which was serving as an office for their work on account of it being the largest room, outside of the dorms and kitchens, that was in reasonable shape. Even then, the room still bore signs of the terrible fighting with patches of black smoke and a few destroyed shelves on the far wall.

"As of half an hour ago, the death toll stood at three hundred and nineteen people. Pomfrey and St Mungos expect that to rise to four hundred by this evening. We've got just over the same number injured with most having life changing injuries of some sort" the Ravenclaw said. "Half wondering if it wouldn't have been better to have just eaten our own wands" she sighed and slid into one of the chairs.

"The thought had occurred to me" said Hannah. The Hufflepuff was curled up on Harry's lap with her boyfriend tracing a finger over a nipple that showed through her shirt.

"The good news, though, is that all of our group is going to make it" Padma continued. "However, Lavender is going to be in trouble when she wakes up"

"Oh?" Hannah opened one eye.

"Her family, whilst not actually doing anything overt, supported Dumbledore's aims. They've sent word that, in accordance with tradition and law, they have thrown her out of the Brown family" Padma sighed. "This is going to upset her because her family was everything to her"

"Lets just pop over and arrest them" Harry said.

"They never did anything overt" Padma reminded him.

"But they gave him money and support?"

"Yeah"

"Good enough for me" Harry growled. "Well, I'm going to deal with that later… Right now, I feel as if I could sleep for a week"

"There is one other issue" Padma searched through the paperwork she had brought into the staff room.

"Is it important?" asked Hannah with a frown. Harry's finger had finished its work and she had sat up to hear what her friend had to say.

"Kinda…" she located the parchment she wanted and pushed it over for the pair to read. "It's a notice from the Ministry of Magic in France"

"What do they want?" asked Harry in confusion.

"The French Ministry has asked that we turn over Gabby for the carrying out of her sentence"

"_Sentence_?"

"Seems her father has moved to have her disavowed from the family, kicked out and then had her tried for treason and aiding an enemy – mainly _us_" Padma blew air through her clenched teeth in disgust.

"Is she going to be mind wiped or exiled?" asked Hannah who, from her deep friendship with Susan, knew of the standard punishments whereas Harry would not.

"Worse"

"How can it be worse?" asked Harry.

"If you look at the very bottom, they say she is to be executed" Padma watched as Harry read it, grew angry and then slammed the parchment down to the table.

"How many Aurors do we have left here?"

"Seven fully capable of duty, three capable of light duties and another dozen in various states of injuries" Padma said. "The rest are guarding key facilities" the girl added.

"Have the seven good ones guard the entrances to Hogwarts. The three on light duties can guard the Hospital Wing" Harry rose from his seat – fire flashing through his eyes. "Hannah, can the French come here?"

"If the ICW says so, then we might face the French Aurors" she replied.

"Damn… Do we have working Floos again?" he asked.

"Think so" Padma replied. "I know Rionach was working on getting them restored, but she dropped from exhaustion so I haven't been able to question her"

"Well let's try" Harry walked over to the fireplace and tossed in some powder. To his surprise, it flared up with the standard green colour. "Minister for Magic, Ministry of Magic – France" he called and put his head in to the flames. "Ah, Minister, so glad you are there – I believe we have to talk…"

**A/N:**

**Well, there you are… Another chapter to be reviewed – I do hope you like it!**

**Regards**

**Pixel**


	17. A Close Call and Changes

**A Close Call and Changes**

"_Why…_?" Harry asked. "_How…_?" he added helplessly. The French Minister had, upon stepping through the Floo connection, drawn his wand and killed Hannah and badly injured Padma before he was machine gunned by Gabrielle who had snuck out of the Hospital Wing to talk to Harry. The little Veela looked down at Harry cradling Hannah's body in his arms – rocking her and begging her to wake up.

"Harry, we need to get her to the Hospital Wing"

"She's dead, Gabby… There's nothing that we can do"

"Maybe not for her, but for the baby"

"_Baby_?" Harry whispered.

"Hannah was… is… carrying your child – we might be able to save her" Gabby limped over to Harry and gently placed a hand on his shoulders. "Let us do our work"

#

News of the sudden death of Hannah, so soon after what seemed like peace had broken out, caused shockwaves to ripple through Hogwarts. Most people wanted to form an invasion party and declare war on the French Ministry, but Harry refused to consider it at all. Instead, he had all the French citizens in the country rounded up and sent to Paris – with the exception of a pair of French Goblins who had been caught up in the travel ban that Harry had put into place. As for his fiancée, there was a hive of activity as Healers and Medi Witches and Wizards clustered over Hannah. Because they were able to get to her in time, spells had been cast which kept her alive through artificial means. It had been explained to Harry that although Hannah was dead, they couldn't remove the baby yet as it wasn't developed enough to risk a transportation spell. While he wanted to be with Hannah every minute and hoping for a miracle, Harry had a lot of work to get through.

"The number of casualties has been revised to just over one thousand people" Rioanach said, checking over her figures.

"A massive loss" said Dean.

"Are we certain there are no more Time Turner's?" asked Gabrielle.

"Just the one I have, but we can't use it... If I wouldn't use it to save the lives of everyone killed in the final battle, then why for Hannah?" Harry shook his head. "Do we have any idea as to how we might get more food and medical supplies?"

"We'll have more food in two hours, but medical supplies are coming up short" Rioanach replied.

"We've got the potion labs here working at full pace, but it's St Mungos that is running short" Hermione added.

"I hate to suggest this, being the Healer that I am, but the ones we know are going to die... Could we not simply euthanasie them?"

"We could, but that would give rise to people wanting to put down others with the slightest injury" Harry said. "What we will have to do is to give it to the ones we know are going to live, then the ones we are not sure about and then, if there is anything left over, the ones too far gone to save"

"To change subjects, we've had a few attempts by people to form a new Wizengamot and have them declare you insane so they can take over" Hermione said.

"Put them under arrest. Have we figured out what to do with the orphans? It's a subject that's close to my heart after all"

"We're fitting out some of the houses 'donated' by the Death Eaters as homes for them – the large number of bedrooms makes this very bloody easy" Hermione said from her armchair.

"Alright" Harry looked at the clock. "Look, why don't we take a break and start again in the afternoon? Gabby, I want a word" and the group filed out leaving only Harry and Gabrielle together in the staff room.

"Harry?"

"When are you going to tell me?" he asked with a frown on his face.

"That I was a Vampire?" Gabrielle sighed and walked over to Harry and curled up in his lap. "I don't know… Your Healer said I would not be a full Vampire, of course, but I'd still have some things like them"

"Such as?"

"I sometimes want to tear people apart and feast on their flesh" the little Veela started crying. "I want to run to my enemies and rip their limbs from their sockets… I'm a monster"

"No you are not" Harry kissed the top of her head and stoked her back gently. "You are Gabrielle Delacour – a girl with friends and family"

"But I can never return to my family after I was raped by a Vampire and then somewhat turned after… Of course" she sniffed, "I'm exiled"

"Well you can join mine" Harry shrugged. "I've always wanted a sister, and I got Hermione – so another would be awesome"

"You mean it?" Gabrielle looked up at Harry.

"Of course!"

"There is…" Gabrielle hesitated. "There is something else"

"Oh?"

"I'm hungry" she whispered and cuddled up tighter to Harry.

"Ah – I guess you don't mean a sneaky sandwich"

"Non" and she started to softly cry again. "Madam Pomfrey thinks I will only need to drink blood once a month, but I don't want to in case I take too much and kill innocent people"

"And you've not wanted to find somebody to feed from?"

"I thought about feeding from ze corpses, but zat was… was… evil" Gabrielle's English slipped a little.

"Well there's only one thing to do" Harry pushed her off her chest and used his wand to slit his left wrist. Blood started to seep out and Gabrielle stiffened, sniffed and then dove for his wrist and lapped at the blood that came from the self-inflicted wound. After two or three minutes, the young girl brought her head up and wiped her mouth with the back of her hands – suddenly freezing as she did so.

"Why?"

"Because you are a friend of mine, Gabby, and you needed my help very badly. I do not care if you are a Veela Witch who happens to be slightly a Vampire – you are frightened and scared… I will never judge you for what happened to you"

"Merci, mon frère" she went back into her native language and went to sleep on his lap. Harry waited a few moments before levitating her to the couch to rest and then left the room to go and be by Hannah's bedside.

#

"We've been able to revise the figures for the number of dead" Hermione said. "At the moment, its just over one and a half thousand on our side – we've not really been counting the other side's lot, but Gringotts is going to check their wards and monitoring charms and get back to us on that one. The injured are being treated either here or at St Mungos with some of them being sent home to rest under the care of their families"

"Right" Harry yawned and stretched out his limbs.

"Why don't you go and get something to eat?" asked his oldest female friend.

"I could, but I don't want to leave Hannah in case…" Harry trailed off and stroked the back of Hannah's left hand. Hermione hesitated before getting a chair and sitting down next to her friend to give him as much comfort as possible. They sat in silence together as they hoped and prayed for a miracle to occur, and it wasn't until Hermione said something that gave Harry a glimmer of hope.

"What a pity we can't do organ transplants" she said.

"Why not?" asked Harry dully.

"Because it's a muggle thing and nobody even knows how to do it really" Hermione and then she stopped as her brilliant mind came up with an idea. "Harry, organ transplants are putting something from one place to another, right?"

"Yeah…?"

"We have hundreds of corpses in stasis… We could, in theory, perform a switching spell to remove Hannah's damaged organs for good ones from a dead Death Eater"

"What about the baby?" Harry looked up at her. He did not want to lose the baby as it would be his only link to Hannah should she die.

"Pomfrey said that there would be no reason why, in a week, that the baby couldn't be born – we simply deliver the baby and then perform the spell"

"My God… Is it possible?" he breathed.

"I don't know, but for you, Harry, I'm willing to try" and she watched as Harry stood and then looked between his friend and the girl he thought of as his wife in all but full legality.

"Gather the gang together in the staff room. I want Pomfrey and the Heads of Department from St Mungos there too" Harry spoke calmly and decisively. "Are you sure this is going to work?"

"The theory is sound" Hermione replied.

"Good enough for me… Find a suitable candidate from the dead Death Eaters – they destroyed lives, so it's fitting they save one"

#

Despite the death that still hung in the air of Hogwarts, a new sense of life had seemingly got into the school as Harry dragged every expert he could think of in order to try and save Hannah's life. Everybody agreed that switching the organs was a possibility that would work, but it was Hannah's soul, the thing that made Hannah who she was, that was the most concern. She had been brain dead for days by this point, and some theorised that her soul had long since departed from the body. Others speculated that the soul remained in the mind, but trapped because the body still lived. None of the experts had any idea what to do until Rionach, Padma and Natalie had offered to put their magical talents together and search for Hannah's soul in what lay beyond. It was a dangerous and risky procedure, but Harry wasted no time in agreeing to it. As soon as was possible and practical, he had Hogwarts completely evacuated except for his friends and the experts in all fields – meaning that there was a silence in most parts of the castle. Hannah and Harry's first born, a daughter, had been born an hour before hand and evacuated to St Mungos under heavy guard.

"Okay…" Harry breathed in and out to slow his quickening nerves. "Apart from objections noted, are we ready to go?" and he got nods all round.

"We found a body in stasis that is of similar age and physical condition to Hannah so that we had the best chance of doing this" Fay said. "What happens next, though, is up to fate and magic" she added.

"Let u-" Pomfrey was cut off by the doors to the Hospital Wing opening and in walked Swiftsure, Firenze and the Mer-Chieftainess perched on Firenze's back. They all showed signs of the fighting with bruises and blood-stained bandages.

"What are you doing here?" Harry asked.

"We have learnt what you plan to do, Harry Potter, said Firenze, panting slightly as he spoke. "When all hope was gone for peace and it was but a matter of time that evil would turn to us, you defeated the darkness. We now stand with you in your hour of need – to help give some of our magic to help bring back that which was taken from you"

"What he says is true" said the Mer-Chieftainess. "Though we helped you in the final push to victory, my people, those in the Black Lake at least, have a debt to you that we fear can never be repaid at all"

"It is written in the ancient texts that most work with soul magic has had at least one Goblin in attendance" Swiftsure said. "Although the actual fighting took but a few seconds, you are my brother in arms, Harry Potter… I could not stay away when help could be offered to somebody I fought alongside"

"Thank you" Harry whispered. A few tears spilled from his eyes before he gathered his emotions together once more. "Lets go through this again… We are going to do the switching first and then see if they are rejected magically. If not, the girls will go into their trance and try to find out if Hannah's soul is still in her mind or is in limbo somewhere. If it's in her mind, then they will get her mind restarted. If it is in limbo, though, they will have to go into a deeper trance and guide it back to the brain"

# # # # #

"_How did it feel to try and save your partner's life over all of those that were lost_?"

"_That is a question I have been asking myself for years ever since_" Harry shrugged and gulped down his Firewhiskey. "_We didn't think about it at the time, though we later used the switching spell to save others using the newly invented method of magical organ transplant. As for Hannah… Well, the mind magics took a long time to sort out. Despite St Mungos being off limits as a target to the combined forces of Voldemort and Dumbledore, most of the Mind Healers were killed. Those that were left had their hands full with the survivors, but that never bothered me that much. Despite them only knowing what they had read in books and from legends passed through to them by their own peoples, I trusted them completely to get the job done_" Harry paused and looked over at the young woman with a fond smile. "_I'm rambling, am I not_?"

"_Sir… After all that you have done, your rambling on would be such an honour to listen to_"

"_Huh… Another unwanted honour! Anyway, Miss Shah, where was I…?_" Harry went over his thoughts. "_Ah, yes – Hannah. It was two and a half hours before we got the first impressions that something was happening…_"

# # # # #

"Harry, Miss Abbott's brain activity just started to pick up" Pomfrey looked up at the worried and distraught teen.

"What does that mean?" he asked as he looked up from where he sat holding her hands inside his own.

"It means that they might have found her soul, Harry" Hermione told him.

"May I scan the girl?" asked Swiftsure. "We Goblins have developed magic to deal with Horcruxes and the like – I can use that magic to detect if her soul has returned or not"

"Madam Pomfrey?"

"I don't see why not – all the books I have read and my experience tells me there is nothing I can do for the mind myself. We're charting some serious and interesting medical science here" the old school nurse said softly.

"Do it" Harry nodded at the Goblin who stepped forward and began to mutter quietly in Gobbledegook. "How are they?" Harry asked of the three in a deep trance.

"Using a fair bit of their magical core in an active state" Pomfrey shrugged and wiped her hands on her apron – the first time she had had a clean one in over two weeks. "When they come out of it, they'll need a good meal inside them and plenty of rest for twenty four hours"

"Do you know when they might come out of their state?" asked Dean.

"No, but this is magic of a sort never before attempted – it might be as dangerous to them as it is for Miss Abbott"

"If it comes down to it" Luna spoke up quietly from her wheelchair, "I will dive into their shared trance search and pull them back"

"You are already very weak" Pomfrey objected straight away.

"What gave it away?" Luna looked up and asked sarcastically.

"Lord Potter… Your chosen mate's mind… It is returned!" Swiftsure cried out and was gently pushed out of the way by Harry and the able bodied of their group. "I can not be certain without another examination by Madam Pomfrey, but her soul has returned to the mind"

"They have left Hannah's soul" Luna said as she sat in her wheelchair with her eyes closed, head bowed and one hand raised and tilted forwards. There was sweat beading on her brows and she looked to be in some discomfort, but she pressed on to help the three back to their own minds and bodies – after over a decade and a half of strife, pain, abuse and misery, she'd give up her life to bring Harry his happiness and long life with Hannah. As she concentrated hard, Luna also saw threads of Lavender and Gabrielle interweaving with the ropes of Hannah and Harry with confused her greatly.

# # # # #

"_What did she mean by seeing threads_?"

"_Ah, that's getting a little bit ahead of ourselves, my dear…_"

# # # # #

"You gave us a bit of a fright" Pomfrey said as the trio woke up.

"Wha… Why?" Padma blinked as she stretched out her limbs to get some feeling back into them.

"Hannah took a few steps back, so Luna had to dive in and help you get her soul back" Harry, although calm, made it clear he was not happy at all with Luna's decision. "The Healers think that Hannah will live, but they are unsure about how she might wake up and act. I don't understand it fully, but even though her soul is returned, her mind can be jumbled up"

"At least we did our best" Padma said quietly. "Do you think we might be excused and get something to eat?"

"I will have elves take you to rooms" Pomfrey said.

"We're staying" said Rionach.

"I can not allow you to stay when things are complex and busy"

"They stay" Harry growled.

"Mr Potter, I know that you are emotional after whats happened to Miss Abbott, but that's no rea-" she was cut off by Harry turning to look at her with a blank expression on his face and she felt a fear he would kill her there and then if he desired it.

"They stay" he said flatly and turned to walk back to Hannah's bedside where he fell into a discussion with Swiftsure, Firenze and the Mer-Chieftainess.

"You should know" Pomfrey looked down at Natalie, "That Harry will always back what his friends want"

"For a moment I thought he was going to kill me"

"If he hadn't" Natalie said darkly, "I _would_"

#

"There has been no change" said one of the Healers. "Miss Abbott's soul is back in her mind, but her body seemingly refuses to answer to anything we try. Given the amounts of magic we have used lately, we dare not try to wake her through magical means…"

"Whats the best that we can hope for?" Harry asked, jiggling his child to his other knee.

"The best we can hope for is a full recovery, but it is more likely to be a long and difficult process" the Healer sighed. "Miss Abbott may have to learn basic things again such as reading, writing–"

"And us?"

"Perhaps" the witch said.

"Will she need a wheelchair when she wakes?"

"For the first few days, certainly" and Harry looked at Hannah's sleeping form.

"I'm going to take a walk with the little one here" he said at last and placed her in a magical basket that had been given to them as a gift of the Goblin nation. Once secured, it rose to a reasonable height and stayed by Harry's side as he walked out the Hospital Wing for a break. Once magic had calmed down, people had returned to secure the castle before works were to be started. Nearly all the elves at Hogwarts had transferred to the Ministry to repair it fully and make it fit for use for some of the Offices and Departments that needed to be restored to operation.

"Harry…" a voice called out and Harry turned to see Moaning Myrtle floating towards him with a wrapped bundle in her ghostly arms. He was surprised because not only had everyone thought the ghosts had vanished during the fight, Myrtle was actually carrying a solid object. As she got closer, he realised it was a dead body wrapped up in a Hufflepuff flag.

"I thought you had…"

"I stayed away from the fighting because I was a coward, but I have tried to make up for it by searching for the dead, dying and injured. This one…" Myrtle gestured at the bundle, "This one I saw die but I never said anything out of fear"

"Who was she?" Harry uncovered a small bit of the flag and quickly replaced it from disgust. The face had been mutilated, he hoped after the girl had died, and a lot of other injuries could be seen down her small body.

"I do not know her name, but she was a first year. She died when she was the last one defending Hufflepuff's cup" Myrtle looked down at the floor as she hovered with a slight bobbing motion. "I should have said something earlier, but my shame would not allow me to tell you this before now... but I watched this girl die. Whatever anyone tells you, she was a true Hufflepuff and was _not_ a coward. She stood her ground, fighting with as many spells as she knew, and ended up by throwing objects at her opponents to the very end. I saw it. The last student to hold the cup was her. Harry" she looked up to stare directly at his eyes. "I have seen my killer caught and killed, so my time is at an end in this world. But, such as I have learned long ago, the magic of my passing needs something to be in – I've decided how I would like to pass on"

"Oh?" Harry replied as he glanced back at the covered up girl. He wondered why she had not started to decompose.

"I know what you're thinking… The old magic of Hufflepuff worked in such a way that the last defender of Hufflepuff's legacy and treasure would be preserved until they could be buried with honour" Myrtle snorted sadly. "She had more honour then I ever did, so this is why I make my choice… I've heard tales that your girlfriend lives but can not be woken, so when I pass over… I will bring her back to life"

"Why?"

"Because, like I said, my time here is over… I've made my peace with myself and just have to see what kind of judgement I face in the next life" Myrtle's voice trembled with a sort of fear. "At the moment of my passing, my last act will be to direct my magical energy towards Hannah and give her the power and strength to wake"

"Thank you" Harry whispered.

"Before I go, there is one thing I have wondered about for a while… Call it a last request"

"Anything" Harry replied softly.

"Perhaps I should whisper it" Myrtle leant in and asked her question.

"Eight and a half" he told her as she straightened.

"And was your girlfriend pleased?"

"I kind of got the impression she was pleased by it several times" and the two shared a laugh for the first and only time.

"Goodbye, Harry Potter" and, with a sad smile, Myrtle faded away and vanished with a bright flash.

#

"Somebody go and get Mr Potter here quickly" Pomfrey ordered as she ran over to Hannah's bed. "After that, somebody tell me what _she's_ doing here…" pointing one finger at a teenaged girl with blonde hair lying on a bed next to Hannah's…

**A/N:**

**Guess Who…!**

**Well another chapter, long in coming, but its here**

**Regards**

**Pixel**


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